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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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Ten Little Comedies 















Ten Little Comedies 


Tales of the Troubles of Ten 
Little Girls whose Tears 
were Turned into 
Smiles 


By Gertrude Smith 

Author of the Arabella and Araminta Stories 


Boston 

Little, Brown, and Company 
1897 
1 




Copyright , 1S97, 

By Gertrude Smith. 




SUnttoersttg Press: 

John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S. A. 
























PAGE 


An Imaginative Little Girl ..... i 

Marguerite’s Little Sister 24 

Betty Sparrow’s First White Dress ... 74 

A Homesick Story 99 

The Green Tin Button-Box 134 

The Little Taylors Alone 160 

An Intercession of Nature 180 

An Unfortunate Little Methodist . . . 201 

First Maid of Honor 219 

A Truant Friend 239 


















f; V % A 



/ tc/w drawings by Etheldred B. Barry 

tf Father, did I have a white dress when I was a 

baby ? ” Frontispiece & 

So Katherine rehearsed all the little naughty things 

she had done Page 19 ^ 

Marguerite lifted the child upon the sofa and knelt 

down before her “ 34 

(t You poor little drowned kitten, of course you 

can go home if you want to ! ” . . . . “ 124W- 

Abbie sat down on the floor, and, taking them out 

one by one, held them up to the light . . “1441/ 

The man from the movers’ wagon stood there 

with his baby on his arm “175^ 

She followed DeWitt to the barn “ 185 1/- 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


“Do you have about the 1 Samuel Baby’ and 

* Naaman’s little maid ’ ?” .... Page 215 

The maids of honor rose together and placed it 

on the head of their Queen “ 234 - 

They had come to Margery’s door, and the little 
girl ran up the steps 


244 


Ten Little Comedies 

9 

AN IMAGINATIVE LITTLE GIRL 

The door between the sitting-room and 
study was partly open. Katherine sat in 
her little rocking-chair by the window in 
the sitting-room. She was piecing to- 
gether small squares of pink and green 
calico. 

The window looked out on the sunny 
yard at the side of the house. Under a 
blooming apple-tree by the fence was a 
box with several pieces of broken dishes 
piled up on the top, and others in rows 
on the shelves that were fitted into the 
box. Small sticks were laid around on the 
ground and formed large squares. These 
squares represented rooms, and this was 
Katherine's playhouse. 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


A hen with a brood of half-grown 
chickens, eagerly following their mother’s 
example, was scratching away the sticks in 
search of food. 

“ They ’re spoiling my playhouse, 
mamma ! ” Katherine called. cc They ’re 
scratching it all to pieces. I ’ve made six 
and a half blocks of patchwork. Can’t I 
go now ? ” 

Mrs. Burton came to the door that 
opened into the kitchen. Her hands 
were covered with flour, and her face was 
flushed with working in the warm room. 

“ Katherine, you must not call to me 
again. Don’t you see the study door is 
open ? How can papa write his sermon 
in such a noise ? ” 

Mrs. Burton went back into the kitchen. 
Katherine picked out four more pieces 
from the basket at her side. Her eyes 
were blinded with tears, and her heart 
ached rebelliously. 

Mr. Burton, sitting bent over his desk 


AN IMAGINATIVE LITTLE GIRL 


in the study, glanced out through the half- 
open door at the sorrowful little figure by 
the window. 

“ Katherine,” he called to her after a 
minute, “ think what will please mamma, 
not what will please yourself. How 
many blocks does she want you to 
sew r 

“ T-w-e-l-v-e 1 ” the little girl answered 
with a burst of tears. 

“They are such small blocks it won’t 
take you long if you ’ll stop crying. 
Don’t be a selfish daughter.” He got 
up and shut the door and went on 
with his sermon. 

“ If he knew what I ’m going to get 
him he would n’t call me selfish. They ’ll 
be sorry when they see it. They won’t 
say I think about myself all the time, 
will they, Lulu ? ” 

She waited until Lulu had answered 
her in comforting words. 

Lulu was a little sister Katherine pre- 
3 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


tended that she had, and she always told 
her all her joys and sorrows. 

cc I believe I have almost enough, 
don’t you, dear ? I ’d like to get it for 
his birthday. It’s so long to wait for 
Christmas, and then people will keep on 
making fun of it.” 

cc Making fun of what ? ” asked the 
imaginary Lulu. Katherine spoke for 
her. 

“Why, of papa’s hat. You know 
very well what I mean.” 

“ It takes a great deal of money to buy 
a hat, though,” Lulu answered. 

“Well, I guess sugar costs lots of 
money too. You know the other day 
when mamma sent us to the store after 
some she said, c Be careful and not drop 
it ; sugar costs money.’ ” 

“ How much sugar do you think 
you ’ve saved ? ” Lulu asked. 

“I guess half a pound, anyway; I 
don’t know.” 


AN IMAGINATIVE LITTLE GIRL 


“ That won't buy a silk hat, will it ? ” 
asked Lulu, doubtfully. 

“ You know I 'm going to put those 
two silver-dollar pieces Mr. Marks gave 
me with it.” 

“ I don't believe Emma Brockway 
heard any one say your papa's hat is 
shabby. She just made it up to torment 
you,” Lulu said after a minute. 

“Well, you know it is shabby.” 

“Yes.” 

“ Oh, there 's Emma now hanging on 
the gate ! ” Katherine said aloud. 

She always talked to Lulu in a whis- 
per. If you had been watching her, you 
would have thought she was talking to 
herself. But Lulu was almost as real 
to Katherine as though she had been a 
real little sister of flesh and blood. 

She had been imagining Lulu sitting on 
the chair by her side, holding the basket of 
pieces. She could have told you just how 
she looked, the color of her eyes, and all. 

S 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ Keep still a minute. Lulu, till I make 
Emma look this way.” 

She tapped on the window. The little 
girl swinging on the gate beckoned for 
her to come out. Katherine held up the 
patchwork and shook her head. Now 
she held up three fingers. 

cc Do you mean when you Ve made 
three more blocks you can go ? ” Lulu 
whispered. 

“Yes, of course,” Katherine whispered 
back. 

Emma pointed to the playhouse, and 
Katherine nodded “yes.” Emma swung 
in on the gate, jumped off, and began to 
straighten the sticks and pick up the 
scattered dishes. 

“ You must n’t breathe our secret to 
Emma,” said Katherine to the imaginary 
Lulu. “ She most guessed it once. I 
said I was saving something sweet, and she 
guessed sugar right off, but she don’t know 
what I ’m saving it for, or where it ’s hid.” 

6 


AN IMAGINATIVE LITTLE GIRL 


Mrs. Burton came to the door just 
then. 

“ Emma ’s out in the yard, Katherine. 
You can go now if you want to. Put 
your work all away and come out through 
the kitchen.” 

Katherine put away her work very 
quickly and ran out into the kitchen. 

“ Here is a lump of sugar for you, and 
one for Emma,” said her mother. 

“Thank you; and could we have a 
little bit of dough to pretend bake 
with ? ” 

Mrs. Burton broke off a small piece 
of dough from the piece she was rolling. 

“ I made nine blocks,” Katherine said, 
stopping in the door. 

“You did very well. You see what 
you can do when you try,” her mother 
answered. “ I don’t want my little girl 
to be always thinking of her own 
pleasure.” 

It was just what her father had said. 

7 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Katherine stopped when she got out- 
side of the door and put one lump of 
the sugar that her mother had given her 
into a little bag deep down in her pocket. 
Then she ran on and gave the other 
lump to Emma with the little roll of 
dough. 

“ I came down to ask you to come up 
to my house this afternoon/’ Emma said, 
putting the lump of sugar in her cheek, 
and rolling the dough in her hands. cc I 
know lots of fun we can have.” 

“ I don’t think mamma will let me.” 

“ Oh, yes, she will, if you tease her.” 

“ What are you going to do ? ” 

“ Our cistern leaked, and the cellar is 
full of water. It floats the wash-tubs. 
Jennie and I have been playing down 
there ever since breakfast. The tubs 
hold me up ; Jennie tied a rope to one 
and pulled me back and forth through 
the water. We play we’re crossing the 
ocean.” 


8 


AN IMAGINATIVE LITTLE GIRL 


Jennie was Emma’s older sister, and a 
far more dangerous companion at times 
than the dear little imaginary Lulu could 
ever be to Katherine. 

£C It sounds lots of fun, but I ’m afraid 
I ’ll tip out,” said Katherine. 

“No, you won’t; it’s just as safe as 
anything.” 

They sat down on a log in the play- 
house, and gave themselves up to plan- 
ning the pleasure they would have in the 
afternoon. 

“There are the funniest toads you ever 
saw, sitting up on the mud around the 
edge of the cellar. We can save this 
dough, and feed them.” 

“Toads?” Katherine asked; “where 
did they come from ? ” 

“Jennie says they just come up out 
of the ground when they want to.” 

“ I don’t believe they eat dough.” 

“Well, we can make it into marbles 
and throw it at them. It’s so soft it 


9 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


won’t hurt them, and it will make them 
squat out their legs and jump into the 
water. They ’re so funny ! ” 

They both immediately began rolling 
the dough into little round balls and 
laying it on pieces of broken dishes. 

“Jennie says Deacon Woods looks like 
a toad. Is n’t she awful ? ” 

Katherine laughed out, throwing her- 
self back on the grass. 

“ That ’s because he ’s so fat and wad- 
dles when he walks. He does look just 
like a toad, doesn’t he?” She sat up. 
“ I suppose it ’s mean to make fun, 
though. Papa says he ’s the best deacon 
he ever had.” 

“ Katherine ! ” Mrs. Burton called from 
the door, “come into the house this in- 
stant. Emma, I think you had better 
run along home.” 

“ She sounds awful cross. What did 
you do, Katherine ? ” Emma whispered. 

“ I don’t know. I did n’t know I had 

IO 


AN IMAGINATIVE LITTLE GIRL 


done anything. I ’m afraid she won't let 
me come to your house now." 

“Tease her! The water will all be 
gone in the cellar to-morrow, and we 
won’t have so much fun." 

cc I ’ll try, but she does n’t like to have 
me tease." 

Emma ran out of the gate and up the 
path along the grass-bordered street. 

Katherine stood watching her for a 
minute, then turned and went slowly 
into the house. 

She knew by her mother’s tone that 
she had done something wrong, but she 
could not think what it was. Perhaps 
she had been at one of the windows 
and heard her laughing about Deacon 
Woods. 

Katherine thought that this must be it, 
and she felt very sorry and ashamed. 

Mrs. Burton was setting the table for 
dinner. The kitchen was full of the odor 
of broiling beefsteak and baking potatoes. 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


It smelled very good to Katherine, for 
she was as hungry as a healthy little girl 
six years old usually is when it is nearly 
twelve o’clock. 

“ Wash your hands and face, and then 
go upstairs and take off your clothes and 
go to bed,” Mrs. Burton said as she 
came in. 

“ Mamma !” Katherine cried out, “go 
to bed ! Why, it ’s just time for dinner ! ” 

When she had done wrong she had 
always been punished, sometimes more 
severely than she deserved, she thought ; 
but never before had she been sent to 
bed in the middle of the day. 

Mrs. Burton made no reply, but the 
stern decision in her face made it impos- 
sible for Katherine to think that the com- 
mand was not to be obeyed at once. 

She washed her hands and face, crying 
loudly, and then started upstairs. 

She brought down her feet very hard 
and screamed as she went, and felt in her 


AN IMAGINATIVE LITTLE GIRL 


heart that she hated every one, and Dea- 
con Woods most of all. 

cc He is like a toad ! He’s squatty 
and fat, and I ’m not sorry I said it.” 

She threw herself on the bed and cried 
until she was tired. Then she grew quiet. 
Perhaps it was n’t for what she had said 
about the deacon that her mamma had 
sent her to bed. It did n’t seem as 
though she would send her just for that, 
without giving her a chance of saying 
she was sorry. It must be something 
else. 

Katherine lay with her head and her 
heart throbbing, trying to remember what 
she could possibly have said or done to 
bring this terrible disgrace upon herself. 

After a while she crawled off* the bed 
and took off her clothes and put on her 
night-clothes. 

She stood for a minute thinking, then 
fell on her knees and prayed that what- 
ever it was she had done she might be for- 

13 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


given. She added a pitiful little petition 
about being very hungry and the beef- 
steak smelling very good. Then she 
got up and climbed into bed and lay 
looking out at the blossoms on the apple- 
tree, and a robin flying in and out among 
them, and listening to the rattling of the 
dishes downstairs. 

Katherine made a very pathetic picture, 
with her little red swollen face framed in 
by her short yellow hair against the white 
pillow. Her lips trembled, and her blue 
eyes kept running over with tears. She 
wanted to be quite calm when her mamma 
came up, as she was sure to come after 
dinner. 

Then there was the disappointment of 
having to give up the hope of going to 
Emma’s house that afternoon. She thought 
of the water in the cellar, and the floating 
tubs and the toads. It was more than 
she could endure, and she cried aloud 
again. 


14 


AN IMAGINATIVE LITTLE GIRL 


In a few minutes she heard the door 
open, and knew by the step that her father 
was in the room. It must be something 
very serious indeed if her father had come 
to talk to her. 

“ I ’ve brought you your dinner, daugh- 
ter ; and after you Ve eaten it, we will 
talk, and you ’ll tell papa what you ’ve 
done, and why you did it.” 

“ I don’t want any dinner,” Katherine 
sobbed in her pillow. Her father put 
down the tray on the table beside the bed. 
Katherine looked out between her fingers 
and saw the nice piece of smoking beef- 
steak and a baked potato and the little 
piece of custard-pie. She had not been 
deprived of any of her dinner. It was 
all there. 

Her father sat down by the side of the 
bed and sighed, and then was silent. 
Katherine wished she had not said she 
did not want any dinner. 

“You know what you were sent to 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


bed for, dear? You have had time to 
think ? ” 

“ No, I don’t. I have n’t done any- 
thing ! I did n’t do a thing, and mamma 
knows it ! ” 

“ Katherine ! ” There was so much 
sorrow and reproach in his tone that 
it made her heart ache terribly. She 
drew the bedclothes up over her head 
and lay very still. Her father sighed 
again. 

“ I will go and leave you,” he said 
after a minute. “ You must eat your 
dinner, and then I want you to pray and 
think. You are making it harder for 
yourself than you need to. Mamma and 
I are both ready to forgive you, but the 
confession must come first.” 

He went out and shut the door, and 
after listening until she thought he must 
be downstairs, she sat up and ate all of her 
dinner. It did n’t taste as good as usual, 
and the custard-pie that she liked so much 
16 


AN IMAGINATIVE LITTLE GIRL 


choked her so she could hardly swallow 
it. 

After she had finished eating she lay 
down again and thought over the days as 
far back as she could remember, and all 
that she had done or said that might be 
the cause of her present disgrace. 

It did not seem to her that there was 
anything wrong that had not been known 
and punished. Still, she could think of 
a few things. At last she decided that 
she would confess them all. 

They were a pathetic little bundle of 
wrong-doings, but she said them over 
to herself and to the imaginary Lulu, who 
came and stayed with her all that long 
afternoon. She wanted to be sure and 
have them ready when her father came 
up again. 

She exaggerated them in her own 
mind with each repetition until she felt 
that any one of them was sufficient reason 
for her being sent to bed. 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Then she became interested in count- 
ing the figures on the wall-paper, and 
before she knew it, she fell asleep. 

When she woke, it was getting dark 
and her father was standing by the bed, 
looking down at her. Her mother was 
just going out of the door. 

“ A terrible thing almost happened to 
your little playmate this afternoon, Kath- 
erine. I cannot help thinking what if it 
had been my little girl. ,> 

Katherine sat up in bed and rubbed 
her sleepy eyes. 

“ Were you asleep, dear ? ” 

“ I guess so. Was it Emma? What 
happened to her ? ” 

“ She was nearly drowned this after- 
noon. Their cellar is full of water, and 
she was playing down there and fell 
in. Her papa came very near not hav- 
ing any Emma before he could get her 
out.” 

“ Oh, papa ! Is she all right now ? ” 

18 





















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AN IMAGINATIVE LITTLE GIRL 


“Yes; she's all right now." Mr. 
Burton sat down on the bed and took 
both of her hands. “ Is my little girl 
ready to tell papa quickly what he wants 
her to tell him ? ” 

So Katherine rehearsed all the little 
naughty things she had done that she 
could remember. In the dim light she 
could see that there were tears in her 
father’s eyes, but after each tale he shook 
his head and said that was not what he 
meant. He thought she was trying still 
to cover up her wrong-doing by telling 
these lesser ones. 

At last, after a long silence, Katherine 
jumped up, and, throwing her arms around 
his neck, cried out her last fault and the 
one she dreaded telling him more than 
any of the others. 

“ Emma said Jennie said Deacon Woods 
looked like a toad, and I laughed and said 
I thought so too ! And I showed how 
he waddled when he walked ! ’’ 

*9 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


If Katherine could have seen her father’s 
face just then, she would have known that 
he was making a great effort not to laugh. 

cc No, it is not that, darling, though it 
was very naughty to make fun of Deacon 
Woods. Katherine,” he put her out of 
his arms, “ have you taken anything with- 
out asking ? ” 

“ Papa ! ” she cried out. She crept 
back into his arms. “I never did! You 
know I never did ! ” 

“ Perhaps you thought you had a right 
to take anything in our own house, but it 
was a very singular thing for a little girl 
to do. It does n’t look honest. What 
did you take and hide in the closet ? 
You know what I mean now, don’t you, 
dear ? ” 

“ Do you mean the sugar ? ” whispered 
Katherine. 

“Yes; why did you take it without 
asking mamma ? ” 

“It was mine ! She gave it to me 


20 


AN IMAGINATIVE LITTLE GIRL 


when she was baking, and at dinner. 
I ’ve been saving it for the longest time, 
ever since way last winter. I saved it — ” 
She stopped. 

“You have been saving sugar ever 
since last winter ! What do you mean ? ” 
her father asked in great surprise. 

Katherine pressed her face to his. 

“ I did n’t want to tell. It was for a 
surprise. I was going to sell it when I ’d 
saved enough, and buy you a new silk 
hat ! Emma Brockway says every one 
makes fun of yours and says it is n’t fit 
for a minister ! ” She patted his face. 
“ I did n’t know it was naughty. Papa, 
are you crying ? ” 

He held her close in his arms and 
kissed her two or three times. 

“You are papa’s good girl. No; it 
was n’t naughty. You thought you 
would buy me a new hat, did you, dar- 
ling ? ” 

He put her down on the bed and went 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


quickly out of the room. His imagina- 
tive little daughter had touched his heart 
more than she could ever know. In a 
few minutes her mother came in with a 
lamp. There were tears in her eyes too, 
but she looked very happy. 

“ I ’ve told,” Katherine said, sitting 
up on the edge of the bed. 

“Yes, papa has told me all about it. 
You can understand, dear, how wrong it 
looked to us, not knowing where you got 
so much sugar ? ” 

“Yes, but I never thought it was that; 
I thought it was about the deacon.” 

Mrs. Burton brought Katherine’s clothes 
and began helping her to dress. 

“ I ’ll buy all the sugar you have saved 
on papa’s birthday, and make him a cake 
with some of it.” 

“ And may I buy the silk hat with the 
money, and the two silver-dollar pieces 
Mr. Marks gave me ? ” 

“ Yes, dear, if papa thinks best.” 


22 


AN IMAGINATIVE LITTLE GIRL 


“ Oh, I ’m so glad ! May I sit up 
until you and papa go to bed ? ” 

“ Yes, if you don’t get too sleepy.” 

“ I won’t ; I ’ve slept hours and hours.” 
And the Sunday following his birthday 
the people noticed that their minister wore 
a new silk hat, but no one ever dreamed 
how dearly it had been paid for. 


2 3 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 
I 

Marguerite sat in the library window- 
seat and looked down at the passing 
people in the street below. 

On a comfortable lounge on the 
other side of the room her Uncle Henry 
lay sound asleep, his newspaper folded 
over his face. 

In the drawing-room downstairs her 
Aunt Caroline was receiving a visitor. 
The library was in the second story of 
the house, and the people in the street 
below lost much of their interest in being 
so far away. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” thought Marguerite, “ I 
wish I had a little sister, and we could go 
up on the roof in the sun, and take my 
doll, and play all the afternoon ! I don’t 
24 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


see why I never had any sisters and 
brothers, anyway ! I don’t see why my 
mamma died ! I’m so lonesome ! ” She 
sighed deeply, and the big tears rolled 
down her cheeks. 

Marguerite had lived in a little house 
in the country with her mother. But 
the spring before her mother died, and 
her Uncle Henry brought her to live 
with him in his large, beautiful house in 
the city. 

He had adopted her. The little girl 
had seen the papers that said she was le- 
gally his child now, though she could not 
understand very clearly what it all meant. 

The strangest part of it was that her 
name had been changed from Marguerite 
White to Marguerite Wetherell. 

Her Aunt Caroline had explained that 
this was because she was to have all the 
money and the houses that belonged to 
her Uncle Henry when he died, and so 
she must take his name. 


2 5 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Marguerite had seen the houses that 
would sometime be hers. There was one 
by the seaside, and one in the mountains, 
and one in the city, — the one where they 
were living now. 

They were all beautiful houses, and 
splendidly furnished, and it quite took 
the little girl’s breath away whenever she 
thought that one day they would all be 
hers ! 

The home in the mountains she loved 
the most of all. She had spent two or 
three weeks of every summer there, with 
her Uncle Henry and Aunt Caroline, 
ever since she could remember. 

They had never had any children of 
their own, and were always delighted 
when Marguerite’s mamma could spare 
her to them, even for a day or two. 

And now that they had her with them 
all the time, and she was their own little 
girl, they did everything they could to 
make her contented and happy. 

26 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


A child never lived who was more 
dearly loved, or more tenderly cared for. 

Marguerite had a very cheerful dis- 
position and usually amused herself with- 
out any trouble, but all her life she had 
had hours of being terribly lonely with 
longing for another child to play with. 

She had not lived near any children 
when in the country with her mother, 
and since she had been living with Uncle 
Henry and Aunt Caroline she had not 
seemed to make friends with any of the 
wonderfully dressed little girls who came 
with their mammas to call upon her. 

She had never been sent to school, but 
had always had lessons at home. 

Her mother had taught her the games 
and plays of the kindergarten, and now 
she had a governess. 

Marguerite was a very lovely little girl. 
She looked like the pictures you have 
seen of the Queen of the fairies. 

Her hair was fine, and as light as flax, 

27 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


with just a tinge of yellow in it. Her cheeks 
were like the petals of a peach-blossom. 

A little girl ten years old could hardly 
have been more unconsciously sweet and 
attractive. 

Just for the last half-hour, sitting 
in the library window-seat, while Uncle 
Henry was taking his nap, and Aunt 
Caroline was busy, she had been having 
one of her lonely times. 

Ever since she was five years old, when 
she had first begun to pray, Marguerite 
had asked God night and morning to 
send her a little sister. 

Since her father and mother had died, 
she had continued the prayer with this 
added clause : — 

“ I know it will have to be an adopted 
sister now, dear Father, but I don't mind. 
I need a sister more than I did when 
mamma was alive, so please do send me 
one soon." 

The house seemed unusually still this 
28 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


afternoon. Outside, the sun was shining, 
but Marguerite never loved the city very 
well, and to-day the long lines of brick 
houses looked more dreary than ever to 
the little country girl. She must have 
forgotten, and sobbed aloud and wakened 
her uncle, for he suddenly sat up and 
looked sleepily about him. 

“ Do I hear you there in the window- 
seat, Birdie ? ” he asked. “ Birdie ” was 
his pet name for Marguerite. 

“Yes, sir,” Marguerite answered, has- 
tily wiping her eyes. 

“What are you sitting there so still 
for? Why don't you play? It is a 
beautiful day. You should go with Miss 
Atwell for a walk.” 

“I will pretty soon. Uncle Henry; I 
was just sitting thinking,” the little girl 
answered, sweetly. 

“ I hope they were happy thoughts,” 
he said, and crossing the room he pulled 
aside the curtain and looked in. 


29 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ Why, what is the matter ? ” he asked, 
drawing her into his arms. “ Why are 
you sitting here crying all alone? Tell 
uncle all about it.” 

<c I ’m so lonesome ! ” sobbed the little 
girl, glad at last to unburden her heart. 
“ Oh, Uncle Henry, why didn’t God 
give me a brother or a sister, so I would n’t 
have to play alone ? I ’ve prayed and 
prayed for one ! ” 

“ There, there, darling, don’t cry so ! 
Have you told Aunt Caroline how lonely 
you are ? ” 

“No, I couldn’t, but I used to tell 
mamma ; I always wished I had a sister.” 

“ I must see about having some child 
come in and play with you oftener,” said 
her uncle. c< There ’s Grade Carleton — 
she is a nice little girl, is n’t she ? ” 

“ I guess so, but she always wears a 
dress that she ’s afraid of spoiling, and 
she’d rather talk than play; she’s most 
like a lady. She laughs at dolls.” 

30 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


“Well, some other little girl, then. 
Aunt Caroline will know of just the one. 
We must see that our dear little girl is 
not lonely again. And now we will go 
for a nice long ride before dinner ; that 
always wakes you up.” 

So Marguerite, on her little Shetland 
pony, and Uncle Henry on his large 
handsome bay, went for a gallop in the 
park. 

It was somewhere near midnight of 
that very night that Marguerite woke 
suddenly and sat up in bed. 

The front door-bell was ringing. It 
rang three times in quick succession, and 
then all was still ! 

Who could have come at such a 
late hour when every one was sound 
asleep ? 

She jumped out of bed and ran out 
into the hall, and leaned over the banister 
and listened. 

No one was stirring in the great house. 

3 1 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Again the bell rang four times sharply 
and clearly. 

“ I ’m going to open the door,” said 
Marguerite. “ Whoever it is, is in a 
big hurry to ring like that.” Without 
a thought of fear the little girl ran down 
the two flights of stairs, and, wrapping 
herself in her uncle’s great-coat that hung 
in the lower hall, she hastily unlocked 
and opened the door. It was a dark 
night in November. No one stood on 
the step waiting to be admitted. What 
could it mean? Had she only dreamed 
that she had heard the bell ring ? But 
she knew that she had distinctly heard 
it as she leaned over the banister. 

“Well, whoever it was has run off,” 
she said to herself, and was about to 
close the door when she heard a faint 
sigh. She looked down, and there on 
the steps at her feet sat a little girl, a 
very little girl, wrapped in a large flannel 
blanket ! 


32 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


Marguerite knelt down and put her 
arm around her. “ What are you sitting 
here for, little girl ? ” she asked. 

“ I was waiting for you to open the 
door,” said a clear, tiny voice from the 
blanket. 

“ Who left you here all alone ? ” 

“ I don't know who it was,” answered 
the little stranger. 

“ Well, come into the house ; it's cold, 
and I ’m in my nighty. Come in, and 
I ’ll light the gas and call Aunt Caroline.” 

The little one untwisted herself from 
the blanket and followed Marguerite into 
the warm hall. 

“Why, you are just shivering with 
cold, you poor little thing ! Here, I ’m 
going to wrap this sofa rug around 
you.” 

The child looked up at Marguerite 
with beautiful brown eyes, and smiled. 

“ I guess I won’t be cold now,” she 
said cheerfully. 

3 


33 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


She did not seem in the least afraid, or 
impressed by her grand surroundings. 

“ What is your name, darling ? ” asked 
Marguerite. 

“ Lucy,” said the waif. 

“ And don’t you really know who left 
you on our doorstep ? ” 

“ Perhaps it was Mary.” 

“ Who is Mary ? ” Marguerite lifted 
the child upon the sofa and knelt down 
before her. 

“ She lives with Janey and me.” 

“ Well, who is Janey, then ? ” Margue- 
rite insisted. 

cc Janey that lives with Mary.” 

The two children made a very pretty 
picture. Lucy was dark, as dark as Mar- 
guerite was fair, and though she was sadly 
ragged and dirty, it was plain to see she 
was an unusual child. 

The gas was not turned high, and it 
gave but a feeble light. The room was 
full of shadows. There was no sound in 


34 



£ 1 ; 


3 p*«A/ 

£Iggfe$ 
























































































MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


all the great house except the solemn tick- 
ing of the tall clock and the two soft voices* 

Suddenly Lucy threw her little arms 
around Marguerite’s neck. “ I love you, 
I do ! ” she exclaimed. 

Marguerite returned the caress in 
earnest. 

“ I love you too, and I ’ll just tell you 
what I believe. I believe God sent you 
here to be my own little sister ! I ’ve 
prayed and prayed for a little sister all 
my life, and now you ’ve come. I ’m 
going to coax Uncle Henry to let you 
stay always and forever, and live here ! ” 

The child’s lips quivered. 

“ I want to go home,” she said. cc I 
want to see my Janey ! ” Her voice had 
a delicate little piping sound like a bird’s. 

“ Of course you can go home the first 
thing in the morning, if you want to ; 
don’t cry, but I wish you could stay. 
Where is your home, Lucy?” 

“ I don’t know where.” 


35 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ Have you a mamma ? Is Janey your 
mamma ? ” 

Lucy shook her head. 

“ Have you a papa?” asked Margue- 
rite, cuddling her close in her arms, and 
kissing her. 

“ I don’t know what is a papa,” an- 
swered the little one. 

“ You mean you don’t remember him, 
I guess. I don’t remember mine either. 
He died when I was a wee, wee baby.” 

Lucy’s eyelids drooped, though she 
still smiled sweetly. 

“How old are you?” Marguerite 
asked. She was wide awake with the 
excitement, and did not notice that Lucy 
could hardly hold up her head. 

“ I guess I ’m eleven, ’bout.” 

Marguerite laughed gayly. 

“Why, you ’re not a bit more than two 
years old, you silly little thing ! ” The 
child laughed too, and patted Marguerite’s 
cheeks with both her chubby hands. 

36 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


“ Yes, I are too ! Yes, I are too ! ” she 
declared. 

“ Do you want to sleep with me, right 
in my own bed with me, and wear one 
of my funny long nighties ? You ’ll have 
to be washed all cleanie, cleanie. Just 
see how black your dear little paddies 
are.” 

Lucy surveyed her hands with grave 
interest. 

cc If you ’ll sit here just a minute and 
be good, I ’ll run and call my auntie, and 
she’ll help me give you a bath, and then 
we ’ll go beddies.” 

But at that moment Uncle Henry and 
Aunt Caroline appeared at the head of the 
stairs. They had wakened and had heard 
voices in the lower hall. At first they 
thought burglars had broken into the 
house ; but when they listened again, they 
had recognized their little niece’s voice 
and laugh, and, wondering why she was 
up in the middle of the night, they had 
37 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


hurried to the head of the stairs, and from 
there had seen the pretty picture I have 
described to you. 

“ Oh, Aunt Caroline,” Marguerite cried, 
springing to her feet when she saw them, 
“ I found this dear little thing on our 
doorstep ! Some one rang the bell, and 
then ran off and left her there all alone ! 
She says she was asleep, and does n’t know 
who it was. Is n’t she cunning ? You 
don’t know what a darling she is. She 
is n’t one speck afraid of me, not one 
speck ! ” 

£C Why, dear, did you come down alone 
in the night and open the door ? ” Aunt 
Caroline’s face expressed great alarm, as 
they came quickly down the stairs. 

“ Yes, they rang so loud they woke me 
up, and then they rang again, and no one 
heard them, so I ran down and opened it, 
and I could n’t see a thing, it was so 
dark ; and then I saw her sitting, all 
^wrapped up in an old blanket. Her 
38 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


name is Lucy. Is n’t she pretty, Uncle 
Henry ? ” 

Uncle Henry had seated himself on the 
sofa by the small stranger. 

“ Look here, youngster, who left you 
on our doorstep ? ” he asked. 

Lucy looked up into his face for an 
instant, and then hung her head and made 
no reply. 

“You must tell me, you see, so I can 
take you right home to your mamma. 
What is the name of the street you live 
on? ” 

“ She says she has n’t a mamma, and 
that she lives with Janey and Mary, but 
she can’t tell who they are,” Marguerite 
answered. “ Please let her stay until 
morning, Aunt Caroline, and sleep with 
me. See, her eyes keep going shut, she 
is so sleepy. Please let her stay.” 

“ Sleep with you, my dear ? That 
dirty little street child sleep with you ? ” 

“We can give her a bath, and she’ll 
39 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


look so darling in one of my long 
nighties ; please let her stay.” 

“ I don’t see but she ’ll have to stay,” 
said Uncle Henry. “ Poor baby ! she is 
too near asleep to tell us anything about 
herself to-night.” Lucy’s head rested 
confidingly against his arm. 

“ She seems to take it for granted we 
are friends. Most children would be 
screaming with fright to find themselves 
in a strange house at this time of night,” 
said Aunt Caroline. “ Yes ; I suppose 
she’ll have to stay.” 

“ And sleep with me ! ” cried Mar- 
guerite, dancing up and down. 

Uncle Henry lifted Lucy into his arms, 
and Aunt Caroline and Marguerite fol- 
lowed him upstairs. It was touching to 
see how patient and good the little thing 
was while they were giving her her bath. 
She smiled through it all and made not 
a word of complaint. 

Uncle Henry and Aunt Caroline were 
40 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


as delighted with her as Marguerite, when 
at last she was lifted from the tub, clean 
and sweet as any baby need be. 

‘‘Isn’t she beautiful. Aunt Caroline? 
I never, never saw such a lovely baby ! ” 
Marguerite said, clapping her hands joy- 
ously. “Look at her hair, — what soft, 
pretty curls ! Oh, I do wish you could n’t 
find her home, and she could live with us 
always and be my little sister. I ’ve al- 
ways wanted one so much. Will she have 
to go away in the morning ? ” 

“Yes, indeed; we couldn’t keep her. 
You must n’t think of such a thing. 
Why, we don’t know anything at all 
about her, Marguerite ! ” said Aunt 
Caroline. 

“In the morning, when she is wide 
awake, I think she can tell us enough 
about herself so that we can find her 
home,” said Uncle Henry; “she seems 
to be a very bright child.” 

Almost the moment Lucy’s head 
41 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


touched the pillow she was asleep ; but 
Marguerite lay awake for a long, long 
time, thinking over the excitement, and 
how happy she would be if only Lucy's 
home could never be found. 

At daylight Marguerite woke, and there 
was the dear little face on the pillow be- 
side hers. She crept over and kissed her 
softly, and Lucy half opened her eyes 
and smiled. 

“ Oh, I can't, can't let her go away 
to-day ! I do hope she won’t remember 
where she lives, and never will remem- 
ber ! " She cuddled Lucy close in her 
arms, and after a few minutes fell asleep 
again herself. 


II 

The children were still both asleep 
when Aunt Caroline came into the room 
at eight o'clock. 

“ Come, little sleepy kittens,” she said, 
42 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


bending over them, “it is nearly time for 
breakfast.” 

Marguerite’s eyes opened at once. 

“ Oh, auntie, she is so sweet to sleep 
with ; she has hardly moved ail night.” 

Lucy pulled herself loose from Mar- 
guerite’s arms, and sat up and looked 
wonderingly about her. 

“ Good-morning, Lucy ; what do you 
think of this strange place ? ” asked Aunt 
Caroline. 

“ I want to get up,” said Lucy ; and 
she slipped from the bed and ran across 
the room to the window. 

“ Why, did you ever see such a child ? 
How full of life she is ! ” exclaimed Aunt 
Caroline. 

“ Does n’t she talk plainly, auntie, for 
such a baby ? She says every word as 
distinctly as I do.” 

“ Where is out of doors ? ” asked Lucy, 
turning from the window. 

“ Why, right out of the window, you 
43 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


little goosie,” said Marguerite, laughing 
and jumping out of bed. 

“ No, it isn't; there aren’t any trees 
out there,” answered Lucy. 

“ I guess you ’re a little girl who has 
lived in the country,” said Aunt Caroline. 

“ I want my clothes on and go out of 
doors and play,” said Lucy, running up 
and down the room, and holding Mar- 
guerite’s long night-gown out of the way 
of her feet. “ Where are my clothes ? ” 

<c It won’t do to put on her own dirty 
clothes,” Aunt Caroline said, catching the 
child up in her arms. “ You’ll get your 
little tooties cold without any shoes and 
stockings, Lucy.” 

“ After breakfast you can go and buy 
her some clothes, and now she can wear 
my red wrapper pinned up around,” Mar- 
guerite replied, running to the closet for 
it. “ I planned about it last night.” 

And so Lucy was dressed in some of 
Marguerite’s under-clothes and the red 
44 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


wrapper, and tripped gayly down the 
stairs, holding Aunt Caroline’s hand. 
Marguerite followed, laughing and clap- 
ping her hands. 

“ She does look so funny, auntie ! 
Won’t Uncle Henry laugh when he 
sees her ? ” 

And you should have heard Uncle 
Henry laugh as Lucy walked before them 
into the dining-room. 

“Well, who comes here?” he cried. 
“What grand lady with a trail to her 
gown is this ? ” 

“ I ’m Lucy,” said the child, holding 
up her arms to him. “ Don’t you know 
I ’m Lucy ? ” 

“ Bless her ! One would think she had 
always known me,” said Uncle Henry, 
taking her up in his arms. 

“ I never saw a child like her,” said 
Aunt Caroline. “ She does n’t seem to 
know what fear is. If she was n’t so 
tiny, I should certainly think she was 
45 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


at least six years old. She speaks so 
distinctly it is quite startling.” 

Some large books were piled on a chair, 
to make a seat high enough for Lucy at 
the table, and then they all sat down to 
breakfast. Lucy was very hungry. She 
ate her breakfast in silence, watching 
everything about her with wide-awake 
interest. 

“ Now, little one,” Uncle Henry said, 
taking her again in his arms at the close 
of the meal, “ can you tell us where you 
live ? ” 

“ I live with my Janey.” 

“And what is the name of the street 
where your Janey lives ? Now try to 
think.” 

Lucy gave him one of her most be- 
witching smiles, and shook her finger at 
him. 

“ It ’s where Mary is, and I want to 
go and see her, I do.” 

“It seems strange,” said Uncle Henry, 

46 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 

<c that so intelligent a child should remem- 
ber so little.” 

cc Oh, goody ! ” thought Marguerite, 
standing near with a beating heart ; “ she 
can’t remember, we ’ll have to keep 
her ! ” 

“ I think her home has been in the 
country somewhere,” said Aunt Caroline. 
“ She ran to the window to look for the 
trees the minute she was out of bed.” 

cc Does Janey live where the trees are ? ” 
asked Uncle Henry. 

Lucy nodded her head for “ yes,” and, 
slipping from his knee, ran to the window. 

cc I want to go out in the yard and play ! 
I want my clothes on ! ” and without any 
other warning she began to cry. 

Marguerite ran to her and comforted 
her. 

“ Auntie is going to the store and buy 
Lucy some pretty new clothes ; and when 
she comes back, you can have them on, 
and we will go out of doors and play. 

47 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Do you want to take my big dolly ? It’s 
a big, big dolly, almost as big as Lucy ! ” 

Lucy stopped crying as suddenly as she 
had begun, and dimpled with pleasure. 

“ Come, we will go upstairs and play 
until auntie brings your clothes.” 

All the forenoon Marguerite played 
with Lucy and her dolls in her own 
sunny room. 

What a happy morning it was ! she had 
never passed another like it. Just before 
lunch Aunt Caroline returned, and there 
followed the great interest of trying on 
Lucy's new clothes. 

The dear baby would have delighted 
the heart of any one who could have seen 
her in her dainty dress of pink cashmere. 

Marguerite danced round and round 
the room. 

“ Oh, Lucy, you look just like a big 
live dolly ! ” she cried. 

And then the four other dresses were 
tried on, and in each one Marguerite 
48 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


declared she was lovelier than in the 
last. 

“ I think the reason that Lucy is 
charming is because she is so natural ; 
but you will soon spoil her, dear, if you 
tell her how pretty she is,” said Aunt 
Caroline, who noticed that the child was 
growing excited with so much unusual 
admiration. 

“ I want my Janey to see me,” said 
Lucy, trotting up and down before a long 
looking-glass in a dress of cherry-colored 
wool. “Take me to her! Take me to 
her ! ” She took hold of Aunt Caroline’s 
hand and pulled it. 

“ Marguerite ’s uncle has gone to find 
your Janey for you, and very soon you 
shall go home to her,” said Aunt Caroline. 

“ Oh, has he ? I did n’t know he had ! ” 
Marguerite caught her breath. “You 
don’t suppose he ’ll find her, auntie ? ” 

“I certainly hope so, dear.” 

“ Then we can’t keep her ! If he looks 
4 49 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


and looks and doesn’t find her home, 
then we will keep her, won’t we?” 

“ I think we shall find her home with- 
out any trouble. This is not a large 
city,” answered Aunt Caroline. 

But two weeks passed by, and nothing 
had been learned of Lucy’s home. 

Marguerite lived in a state of great 
excitement. Every day she feared that 
her uncle would learn something, and 
Lucy would be taken away. But who 
Janey and Mary were, or where they 
lived, no one was ever destined to know. 

Marguerite had never been so happy 
in all her life. There was no time for 
loneliness now. Lucy was like a sprite, 
here and there and everywhere. 

She had a wonderfully affectionate na- 
ture, and said and did so many bright 
and funny things that Uncle Henry had 
grown as fond of her as Marguerite. He 
felt that it would be a fine thing for his 
little niece to have her always in the 
5o 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


house, and was quite satisfied as the days 
went by and he learned nothing of her 
home. 

But Aunt Caroline, while she was in- 
terested in the child, had never for a 
moment contemplated keeping her. 

One afternoon, while Lucy was having 
her nap. Marguerite was in the library, 
writing a letter to her grandmamma. Her 
attention was suddenly attracted by the 
murmur of her aunt’s and uncle’s voices 
talking together in the next room, and 
this is what she heard them say, — 

“A good home can be found for her 
without any trouble, if you really think 
she must go.” It was Uncle Henry’s 
voice in a sad tone. 

“ I wish you had taken her away at 
once. We ought n’t to have kept her, 
even for a day. It will be a great disap- 
pointment to Marguerite, I know; but 
I can’t take the responsibility of another 
child at my age,” replied Aunt Caroline. 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


<c She ’s a very attractive child, and 
she’s almost sure to be a talented woman 
with her remarkably quick, bright ways,” 
pleaded Uncle Henry. 

“ Please don’t urge me to keep her, 
dear,” Aunt Caroline answered earnestly. 
c< If I were a younger woman, or had 
better health, I might think of it, but 
as it is, I can’t bring my mind to con- 
sider it at all.” 

“Well, I will go around to the 
c Children’s Home ’ to-morrow or next 
day, and arrange for her being taken 
away. Poor Marguerite, how can we 
tell her ? It will almost break her heart, 
I ’m afraid.” 

Just then he looked up, and saw his 
little niece standing in the doorway, the 
tears streaming down her cheeks. 

“ Oh, there you are, darling ; come in. 
Did you hear what auntie and I were 
talking about ? ” 

“Yes; I couldn’t help hearing.” She 
52 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


ran across the room and threw her arms 
around Aunt Caroline's neck. 

“ I will take care of Lucy, auntie. 
You needn’t have a bit of the trouble. 
I ’ll wash her and dress her and every- 
thing. Please, please don’t send her away 
to a 6 Children’s Home ’ ! ” 

“ Marguerite dearest, you know I 
would do anything for you that I could, 
but this is impossible.” 

“ We can have a nurse for her,” Mar- 
guerite pleaded ; “ other children have 
nurses. I ’ll study twice as hard, and 
I ’ll never complain when I have to 
practise.” 

Aunt Caroline shook her head. 

“ A nurse could not relieve me of my 
responsibility in the care and training of 
a little child. If Lucy stayed at all, she 
would have to stay as my child, and I 
should want to give her the same care 
and attention that I have given you. I 
have thought it all over, and I am not 
53 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


strong enough to undertake it ; so please, 
if you love auntie, don’t say anything 
more about it.” 

Uncle Henry held out his hand to her. 

“ Come here, darling,” he said ; but 
Marguerite turned and ran quickly from 
the room. 

She went upstairs to her own room, 
and lay down on the floor under the 
window and cried and cried and cried. 

It seemed as though her heart would 
break, and she felt sure she could never 
be happy again. 

The door opened softly, and Lucy, 
bright from her nap, tiptoed into the 
room. 

cc I woke up,” she said gayly. <c Here 
I am, Marguerite ; I woke up ! ” 

cc Oh, Lucy, Aunt Caroline is going 
to send you away. I thought you were 
going to live with us and be my little 
sister,” Marguerite sobbed brokenly. 

Lucy sat down on the floor by her side. 

54 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


“ I won't go away ; I will stay and be 
your little sister,” she said. 

“No; they won’t let you. They’re 
going to take you away to a horrid old 
4 Children’s Home,’ and I ’ll be left all 
alone again.” 

Lucy began to cry too. She was 
thoroughly frightened by Marguerite’s 
grief. 

“ I won’t go away,” she screamed, kick- 
ing her heels on the floor. “ I won’t go 
to a c Children’s Home’ ! ” 

All at once she jumped up and ran 
out of the room. Marguerite called her, 
but she did not answer. After waiting 
a few minutes, she went out in the hall 
and called again, but no Lucy answered. 

She ran from room to room, still call- 
ing, but no Lucy could she find. 

At last she went downstairs and told 
Uncle Henry and Aunt Caroline, and 
they joined in the search. The servants 
left their work in the kitchen and looked 
high and low. 

O 


55 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


They began to fear that in her fright 
the child had somehow opened the front 
door and run away. 

Uncle Henry put on his hat and coat 
and went out and notified the police, and 
all the neighboring streets were searched 
from end to end, but still the child was 
not found. 

It grew dark. Two hours had passed 
since the search began. 

Marguerite had cried until she was 
completely worn out. Her head ached 
terribly, and she looked so pale that Aunt 
Caroline finally coaxed her to lie down on 
the sofa in the library, where she soon fell 
asleep. 

All this time Lucy lay safely hid in a 
linen closet. A deep drawer stood partly 
open, half filled with sheets and pillow- 
cases, and into the back of this she had 
crept, and lain as still as a mouse while 
they were searching the house. The 
thought of the “ Children’s Home” had 
56 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


so terrified the poor little thing it is 
doubtful if she would ever have found 
courage to come out of her own accord. 
The chamber-maid found her, when she 
happened to go there on some errand at 
nine o’clock that night. 

Ill 

The next morning Lucy seemed to have 
forgotten her fright over the “ Children’s 
Home;” and when the time came for her 
to go away in the afternoon she told 
Aunt Caroline and Marguerite good-bye 
with smiles and kisses, and still smiled 
back at them over Uncle Henry’s shoul- 
der as he carried her down the steps. As 
soon as they were fairly out of sight at 
the turn of the street, Marguerite threw 
herself on the sofa, and sobbed and cried 
in the most broken-hearted way. Aunt 
Caroline was really very thoughtless and 
unkind. She scolded Marguerite for 

57 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


being unreasonable, and went away to her 
own room and left the poor child alone, 
and of course this made her cry harder 
than before. All day she lay about and 
did not play, and could not eat her dinner, 
and was more unhappy than she had 
ever known a little girl could be. 

When Uncle Henry came home he 
tried to comfort her by telling her that 
Lucy would be well taken care of, and 
that the u Children’s Home ” was not 
nearly as unpleasant a place as she 
imagined. 

“ I am going to be good, and stop cry- 
ing,” Marguerite said, sitting on his knee ; 
“ but every time I stop, I think how cun- 
ning she was, and how I love her, and 
supposing she goes to live with some one 
and they are unkind to her.” 

cc If Aunt Caroline was strong and well 
I should not have consented to part with 
the dear baby ; but you love auntie more 
than you do Lucy, after all, don’t you ? ” 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


“Yes, I suppose so,” Marguerite an- 
swered ; but in her heart she was won- 
dering if she loved Aunt Caroline at 
all, and felt wickedly sure that she did 
not. 

“ Oh, I ’m so tired, and my head aches 
as though it would break, ,, she said, 
throwing her arms restlessly about. 

Uncle Henry rocked her gently back 
and forth. 

“ I shall never, never pray again,” she 
said, after a few moments’ silence. “ It ’s 
no use ! ” 

“ My dear child, you must n’t say that,” 
Uncle Henry answered, kissing her. 

“Well, what’s the use? If God ever 
does answer prayers, people can spoil it 
all if they want to.” 

“ Some time, perhaps, we shall under- 
stand all these things, darling.” 

cc I loved Lucy as well as though she 
were my very own sister, I know I did. 
Supposing she had been my own sister, 
59 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


and mamma had died and left us, would 
Aunt Caroline have sent her away to a 
c Children's Home ' ? ” 

“ No, that would have been impossible, 
of course.” 

“ Well, then, she could have kept her 
if she had wanted to. She was ashamed 
to because Lucy was a poor little street 
child.” 

“Marguerite!” said Uncle Henry, in 
a grieved tone. “ Do you know what 
you are saying ? ” 

“Yes, I do. I thought about it all 
day and last night,” she said excitedly. 

Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes 
were feverish. “Aunt Caroline told me 
what a rich woman I shall be sometime. 
She says all your houses and money, and 
all of hers, will be mine some day. I 'd 
give them all if I could have Lucy. I 'd 
just as soon be poor ; mamma and I were 
poor, and we did n't mind. I could work 
when I 'm grown up.” 

60 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


Uncle Henry lifted her in his arms 
and carried her over and laid her down 
on the sofa. 

“You must not talk any more now, 
dear ; close your eyes and lie still ; per- 
haps you will have a little nap.” 

“ Are you going to bring Lucy back ? ” 

“ I ’ll talk with Aunt Caroline.” 

“What makes my head ache so. Uncle 
Henry ? It burns like fire. Are you 
going to sit down by me ? ” 

“Yes, just for a minute, if you will 
promise to stop talking.” 

“ Don’t let Aunt Caroline come and 
talk to me. She thinks I ’m awfully 
bad and wicked to cry and make such 
a fuss. She scolded and scolded after 
you went away. You won’t let her come 
in, will you ? ” 

“ Hush, darling ; be quiet ; close your 
eyes.” 

“ Take your hand off my head ; it ’s too 
heavy.” 

61 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ My hand is n't on your head, child." 

“ Yes, it is, and it 's so big and hot ; 
please take it off. Uncle Henry ! " 

Uncle Henry's face had grown very 
grave. He rang the bell, and when the 
maid came he said, — 

“ Bring a bowl of ice-water and sit here 
by Miss Marguerite's side and keep cold 
cloths on her head until I return." 

“ Oh, that will feel so good," Mar- 
guerite said, “ and bring me some water, 
too, Katy. I want a cold drink." 

Uncle Henry had reached the door. 

“ Don’t let Aunt Caroline come in, will 
you ? " 

“ No, dear ; I will tell her you 're going 
to sleep." 

“ My head feels so big, big, big, just 
like a big bushel-basket ! " 

“ That is only because you 've cried so 
much. Here's Katy with the ice-water. 
Now close your eyes. Don't let her talk, 
Katy." 


62 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


Uncle Henry met Aunt Caroline in the 
hall as he was going out. 

“ I am afraid Marguerite has made her- 
self ill, grieving over the baby's going 
away,” he said hurriedly. “ I think 
I 'll go and ask Dr. Holden to step 
around and see her.'' 

“ Nonsense! she will be all right in 
the morning. You encourage her in 
being unreasonable.'' 

Uncle Henry looked at Aunt Caroline 
with his kind brown eyes for a moment 
before he answered, — 

“ She is quite feverish. I think I will 
go.'' Then he looked down and added, 
“ She begs that you will not come into 
the room, and perhaps you 'd better stay 
away until the doctor has seen her ; Katy 
is with her.” 

“ If the child is really ill, I shall go in 
and take care of her,” said Aunt Caroline, 
decidedly. 

“No, you must not,” Uncle Henry 
6 3 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


answered in his slow, gentle voice ; cc she 
is in a very excitable state, and I prom- 
ised her you would not come in.” 

“ I suppose I was impatient with her, 
but it does seem as though she might 
think how hard it all is for me,” said 
Aunt Caroline. 

Uncle Henry stooped and kissed her. 
“ It will be all right,” he said tenderly, 
and then put on his hat and hurried away. 

Aunt Caroline had been an invalid the 
greater part of her life, and it had seemed 
almost more than she could undertake to 
have Marguerite come and live with them 
when her mother died. 

She went to her room now and thought 
it all over and over again, just as she had 
so many times before. 

She knew that Uncle Henry was as 
greatly disappointed over Lucy’s going 
away as Marguerite, and she missed the 
dear baby more than she had dreamed 
she could. All at once it seemed as 
64 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


though a good angel must have whis- 
pered to Aunt Caroline a way out of 
her difficulties. 

“ If only Esther would consent to come 
and live with us, she could take entire 
charge of both children,’' she thought. 
Esther was an unmarried sister of Uncle 
Henry’s, who lived in a distant State. 
She went to her desk and wrote a long 
letter to Aunt Esther, and rang for a 
maid to go out and mail it, and felt 
more light-hearted than she had for many 
days. 

The doctor came, and said that Mar- 
guerite was simply over-excited and fever- 
ish, and would be all right in a day or 
two. 

The next morning before she was 
dressed Marguerite ran into Aunt Caro- 
line’s room. 

“ Oh, auntie, you did n’t come and 
kiss me last night ! ” 

“ But you have come in to kiss me 
5 65 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


this morning, so it is all right ! ” said 
Aunt Caroline, bending to kiss her. 

“ I know I was naughty, but it seemed 
as though I could n't let Lucy go away.” 

“ Perhaps all your clouds will be turned 
to sunshine, darling. Who do you think 
I have asked to come and live with us ? ” 
“ Lucy ! Oh, Aunt Caroline ! ” 

“ I wrote to Aunt Esther last night and 
asked her to come and live with us and 
take care of two little girls and a fussy, 
sick old woman.” 

“ You 're not fussy ! Will Uncle Henry 
go and bring Lucy home to-day ? ” 

“You must wait until we hear what 
Aunt Esther says ; nothing is decided, 
so don’t let your hopes run too high.” 

“ She 'll come ; I know she will. I 
wrote her the longest letter about Lucy. 
She knows how much I loved her and 
wanted her to stay. When shall we hear 
from her ? ” 

“In a day or two. I asked her to 
write at once.” 


66 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


<c It will be a long time to wait. Sup- 
posing some one else takes Lucy ? ” 

But Aunt Esther, who understood chil- 
dren perfectly, and knew what suspense 
Marguerite would be in, telegraphed her 
answer. The message came the next 
morning while they were at the breakfast 
table. 

“ I shall be with you on Saturday 
night,” the message read. 

You can only imagine the happiness 
that Aunt Esther’s letter brought Mar- 
guerite, if you have ever been very sor- 
rowful, and then have suddenly been made 
very glad. 

“You will go right away and bring 
Lucy home, won’t you, Uncle Henry ? 
Supposing some one else has taken her ! ” 
“ Yes ; you must go at once,” said 
Aunt Caroline, “ though I do not think in 
two days it is possible she can have gone.” 

The minute Uncle Henry finished his 
breakfast he hurried away to the “ Chil- 
67 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


dren’s Home/’ and Aunt Caroline waited 
quite as anxiously as Marguerite for his 
return. 

Oh, how happy Uncle Henry was 
that morning ! It seemed as if his feet 
could not bear him fast enough on his 
glad errand ; and when he had gone 
half the distance, he jumped into a cab, 
and rattled off at a great pace. 

“ What if I should not find the dear 
baby ; how could I ever go home and 
tell Marguerite ? ” he thought. 

At last he reached the “ Children's 
Home ” and ran up the steps and rang 
the bell. A tiny, thin-faced boy opened 
the door. 

“ I Ve come to take little Lucy home 
with me. Can you tell me if she is here 
still, my boy ? ” Uncle Henry asked hastily. 

The child’s face brightened. 

“Yes, sir, if it’s the Lucy that’s up in 
the nursery you mean. Wait a minute; 
I ’ll tell Papa Taylor.” 

68 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


He ran away into the office at one side 
of the hall, and came back presently hand 
in hand with the superintendent of the 
Home, — a dear old gentleman, with long 
white hair and a pleasant smile. 

“ I am glad to hear you Ve changed 
your mind and come back for that blessed 
baby,” he said, shaking Uncle Henry’s 
hand. “We never have had her equal 
in this Home.” 

He led the way up to the nursery, 
where they found Lucy running about in a 
little checked apron with the other babies. 
But when she saw Uncle Henry, she 
threw up her arms, and screamed with 
delight, and ran to him. Uncle Henry 
caught her up in his arms, held her 
close, and called her, “ Little daughter ! ” 

The nurse and the superintendent 
wiped the tears from their eyes, and all 
the other babies stood around with wide- 
open eyes of wonder and interest. 

“ I want to see my Marguerite. 

69 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Where is she ? ” asked Lucy, in her 
quick, distinct little way. 

“ She is at home with Aunt Caroline.” 

“ Is she ? Will she come here and see 
me too ? ” 

“ No, but you shall go and see her.” 

u Now, right now ? ” 

“ Yes, right now.” 

“ Aunt Carolyn will rock me. Nurse 
has too many babies,” said Lucy, with a 
thoughtful look at the other babies. 

The nurse told Uncle Henry how dear 
and good Lucy had been since she came 
to them. 

“ We would have found no trouble in 
getting one of the best of homes for her. 
I never knew a child so quick and clever- 
witted, and with such a remarkable voice. 
If you had come a day or two later, I 
am sure you would not have found her. 
Almost every day we have people come 
in who take away the bright and pretty 
children, but for these poor motherless 
70 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


little things that need love and a home 
quite as much, it is not so easy to 
provide.” 

Uncle Henry looked down at the 
twenty or thirty babies toddling or crawl- 
ing on the nursery floor, and his great 
fatherly heart yearned to adopt them all, 
and care for them. 

There were some wonderfully inter- 
esting little faces, and many childless 
fathers and mothers might have found 
here their heart's delight for the asking. 

Uncle Henry and Lucy were soon on 
their way home. 

cc I am going to be your papa now, 
Lucy. Do you understand, you are my 
own little girl ? ” 

cc No ; you are Uncle Henry,” an- 
swered Lucy, hugging him tight. And 
it was many years before she could be 
persuaded to call him anything else. 

Marguerite and Aunt Caroline were 
in the hall to receive them when they 
7i 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


reached home, and a small princess never 
came to her palace with a more loving 
welcome. 

Marguerite felt sure that Lucy had 
come to stay when she saw the tears in 
Aunt Caroline’s eyes as she held her in 
her arms and kissed her. 

“You are my little sister now,” said 
Marguerite. “ Are you glad, Lucy ? ” 

“Yes, I am glad,” answered Lucy, 
with one small hand pressing Aunt 
Caroline’s cheek, and her other arm 
around Marguerite’s neck. And then, 
all at once, she looked around the room, 
and her little lips quivered. “ Where is 
my Janey ? ” she asked. 

Aunt Caroline shook her head, but 
no one spoke. It was a very sad 
moment. 

And so Lucy was adopted and grew 
to be a woman in this beautiful home 
as Marguerite’s little sister. She was a 
lovely baby, and as she grew older every 
7 2 


MARGUERITE’S LITTLE SISTER 


one realized more and mere that she had 
an equally lovely disposition. 

How many friends she had, and how 
easily she made them ! 

Her voice, that had always been so 
clear and sweet, proved to be a wonder- 
ful gift. When she was still very small, 
Lucy could sing like a bird ; and as she 
grew older her voice grew rich and full 
and more beautiful, until she became one 
of the greatest singers in the world, — 
the little Lucy who was found on the 
doorstep ! 


73 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


BETTY SPARROW’S FIRST 
WHITE DRESS 

“ If the pieces are small, shall I drop three 
in a hill ? ” Betty called to her father. 

Mr. Sparrow was just ahead with the 
horse and plough, turning furrows in the 
dark, damp soil. 

Betty was dropping potatoes for him. 
She was nine years old, and this was the 
second summer she had helped her father 
with the potato-planting. He paid her 
five cents for every peck she dropped. 

Mr. Sparrow stopped the horse and 
looked back at her. 

“ Yes, if the pieces are very small, drop 
three in a hill ; but don’t waste the po- 
tatoes so you ’ll get a peck dropped 
sooner.” 

“ Why, father, you know I would n’t 
do that ! ” 


74 


BETTY SPARROW’S DRESS 


Mr. Sparrow laughed. “You get a 
peck dropped so soon, I ’m afraid you 
tuck pieces under the dirt where there 
shouldn’t be a hill.” 

“You can hunt and see,” Betty an- 
swered. “You’ll find two and then 
three, two and then three ; ” she counted 
and dropped as she spoke. 

Her father waited until she had over- 
taken him. 

“Well, are you tired out ? ” he asked. 
“ The sun is pretty hot for you, is n’t 
it?” 

“ No, I ’m not tired a bit.” Betty’s 
feet were bare, and she drew them back 
and forth in the warm earth, and smiled 
up at him from under her blue gingham 
sunbonnet. 

“ Don’t you think you ’d better run up 
to the house and help mother awhile ? ” 

“ I want to stay and help you till noon. 
Father, did I have a white dress when I 
was a baby ? ” 


75 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ Why, yes, I suppose you did. What 
put that question into your head ? ” 

<c Gracie Newell has a new white dress. 
She asked me if I ever had one, and I 
told her no. I forgot about when I was 
a baby. I told her light calico dresses 
were just as pretty, anyway. Her dress 
has six ruffles. It ’s so beautiful ! I ’d 
have to drop bushels and bushels of po- 
tatoes before I could earn enough to buy 
one, would n’t I ? ” 

“ I don’t know what one would cost, 
I’m sure. We’ll have to ask your 
mother about it.” 

“ I know she ’ll say I don’t need it,” 
Betty answered, turning away. 

There was a new light calico dress in 
the closet that she had never worn. It 
was a very pretty dress, white with tiny 
blue dots, and she had a new sundown 
hat with a green wreath to wear with it. 

The little girl went back and forth, 
back and forth across the five-acre field, 
76 


BETTY SPARROW’S DRESS 

dropping potatoes and measuring the 
distance between the hills with her bare 
feet. 

“ Fifty pecks at five cents a peck would 
make two dollars and a half, and I have 
fifty cents ; that would be nearly enough. 
Oh, I do wish I could earn it in time to 
have it made for the Fourth of July pic- 
nic ! I know mother won’t let me have 
it unless I can earn it.” 

A flock of blackbirds flew over her 
head, and perched in a line on the fence 
near by, and chattered gayly together, but 
Betty was too busy thinking to notice 
them. 

It was a beautiful spring day. The 
fields, the orchards, and the woods, in all 
the shades of tender green, lay like a pic- 
ture around her. 

After a while Mrs. Sparrow came to 
the edge of the field and called to them 
that dinner was ready. Betty threw 
down her pail and ran to her father. 

77 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ May I ride Nellie up to the barn for 
you ? ” she asked. 

Mr. Sparrow was unhitching the horse 
from the plough. 

“ Why, yes, you may if you want to,” 
he replied good-naturedly. He tied up 
the traces securely, and tossed Betty on 
the horse’s back, and she trotted away 
across the field, holding closely to the 
bridle. 

“ Ride around to the well and give 
Nellie a drink,” her father called after 
her. “ And look out you don’t get 
caught by the hair when you go under 
the plum-trees.” 

cc All right ; I hear,” Betty called back. 

“ What a good child she is ! ” her father 
thought. “ She ought to have a white 
dress if she wants one, but I am afraid 
her mother will not agree to it.” 

When Betty reached the well, she 
slipped from Nellie’s back and stood 
talking to her while she drank. 

78 


BETTY SPARROW’S DRESS 


The plum-trees that grew all around 
the well were full of little pink buds 
just bursting into bloom, and the honey- 
bees were noisy among them. 

“ Hear the bees buzzing, Nellie ; sup- 
posing you were a bee instead of a horse, 
you would have honey for your dinner, 
and not old dry oats and hay. I 'm 
going to have something good for my 
dinner; smell it? Don't you wish you 
were a little girl, so you could have some ? ” 
Nellie looked at her with her big con- 
tented brown eyes, and shook her head. 
She was really only shaking off a fly, but 
Betty took it for an answer. 

<c Father, Nellie understands every word 
I say to her ; I know she does.” 

Mr. Sparrow was pumping fresh water 
in the watering- trough. 

u I don't doubt it ; she has more in- 
telligence than a great many people. 
Run in and help mother ; I 'll take her 
to the barn.'' 


79 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Betty threw her arms around the 
horse’s neck, and kissed the white star 
on her forehead. 

“You blessed old pet! I love you 
next best to mother and father ! ” 

“Well, if you love mother, run along 
and help her take up the dinner,” her 
father answered, laughing. 

“ If she says I may have a white 
dress, do you say so ? ” Betty asked, 
stopping as she turned to go into the 
house. 

“ Yes, I say so ; but I would n’t bother 
her about it now while she ’s busy.” 

“ What smells so good, mother ? ” 
Betty asked, as she went into the warm 
kitchen. 

“ That rhubarb-pie, I guess. Hurry 
and wash your hands and bring a fresh 
pitcher of water from the well.” 

“ Grade Newell has a new white dress ; 
it has ruffles clear to the waist,” Betty 
could not resist saying, as she wiped her 
80 


BETTY SPARROW’S DRESS 


face on the towel and peeped out at her 
mother. 

Her mother smiled, but made no 
answer. 

<c She ’s going to wear it to church 
Sunday. If I had one, I ’d want to 
keep it fresh for the Fourth of July 
picnic.” 

Mrs. Sparrow hummed a little tune, 
still smiling. She seemed so unusually 
good-natured that Betty neglected her 
father’s warning. 

“Father says I may have a new white 
dress if you say so.” 

“ Have a new white dress ! Well, you 
can’t ; you don’t need it. Run along 
and get the water for dinner.” 

How dark it seemed under the plum- 
trees by the well ! What an unhappy 
little face it was that looked out at her 
from the mossy bottom of the watering- 
trough ! 

She leaned against the pump, and 
6 81 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


cried, and all the world became a blur 
of tears. She was sure her mother did 
not love her. She did not even give her 
a chance to say she wanted to earn the 
money for the dress herself. 

She could n’t eat any dinner, she knew 
she could n’t. She thought she ’d run 
away and never come back again ; only 
there was father, he loved her and wanted 
her to have the dress. 

Just then her father came to the door 
and called her to come in to dinner. 

Every one was a little afraid of Mrs. 
Sparrow, even her husband and child. 
She was really a kind-hearted woman, but 
she had an unreasoning temper. When 
she was displeased people never attempted 
to talk with her ; if they did, she refused 
to answer them. 

She was greatly displeased now because 
Betty had asked her father for a white 
dress before she had spoken to her about 
it. 


82 


BETTY SPARROW’S DRESS 


The three sat down to the table that 
noon in silence. It was such a good 
dinner too, for Mrs. Sparrow was an 
excellent housekeeper. 

Betty’s face was red with crying, and 
her throat ached so she could hardly 
swallow. The clock ticked on the mantel, 
and the tin tea-kettle sang and rocked 
merrily on the stove. 

When Mr. Sparrow had finished eating 
his dinner, he took his hat and went out 
of the house without a word. 

Betty jumped up and ran out after 
him. 

“May I drop potatoes again this after- 
noon, father ? ” she asked. 

“Just as your mother says,” he an- 
swered, without looking around. 

“You are not going into the field in 
the hot sun with your father this after- 
noon,” Mrs. Sparrow said, coming to the 
door. 

So Betty washed and wiped the dinner 
83 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


dishes, and afterward sat down in the 
front door, where it was shady, to sew 
carpet rags. She disliked sewing carpet 
rags more than anything else she ever had 
to do. 

Usually when she was sewing, she 
coaxed her mother to let her stop and 
play ; but this afternoon she sewed on for 
two hours without saying a word. She 
hoped if she got several balls done, her 
mother would feel tender towards her, 
and perhaps she would dare tell her she 
wanted to earn the money for the white 
dress herself. 

Betty had a fertile little mind, and so 
the two hours did not pass as drearily as 
you might suppose. 

She pictured herself in a white dotted 
muslin dress at the Fourth of July picnic, 
and no reality was ever more blissful than 
that dream. 

She thought if only her mother would, 
just that minute, call her to her and kiss 
84 


BETTY SPARROW’S DRESS 


her, and say she could have the dress, or 
anything else she wanted, how happy she 
would be ! 

In story-books mothers did things 
like that, and in Betty’s day dreams 
Mrs. Sparrow was always a story-book 
mother. 

Two robins were building a nest in a 
cedar-tree near the door. They were 
old friends of Betty’s. This was the 
second summer they had spent with her. 
Perhaps they were not the same robins, 
but she believed they were. She made 
up stories about their life ; they were 
really beautiful stories that continued 
from day to day, as long as the birds 
stayed. 

She was in the middle of one of these 
stories when her mother, who had been all 
the time in the room behind her like a 
dark cloud of unhappiness, suddenly 
spoke. 

“ Well, I never knew you to sew carpet 
85 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


rags so long before. I suppose you are 
waiting for me to tell you to stop ? ” 

“Just see what big balls I’ve made/’ 
Betty answered, rolling them across the 
floor. “ If I sewed as many as that every 
day for a week, I guess it would n’t be 
long before you had enough for a carpet.” 

“ Put away your work now and go and 
play,” Mrs. Sparrow said. A shadow of 
a smile played about her lips. 

“ I ’m not tired a bit. I ’d just as soon 
sew another hour as not.” 

“ Betty Sparrow, don’t be foolish ! 
You know I never ask unreasonable 
things of you.” 

Betty gathered the rags all into a 
basket and put them away in a little closet 
that opened from the room. 

“ I ’ve earned almost sixty cents drop- 
ping potatoes already. I emptied my 
bank and counted last night.” Her heart 
was beating loudly. She did n’t really 
know what she was going to say next, but 
86 


BETTY SPARROW’S DRESS 


she thought that since the ice was broken 
and her mother had spoken, she must 
say something. 

She rolled her little white apron around 
her hands and smiled and hesitated, wait- 
ing for her mother's approval. 

Mrs. Sparrow said nothing, and Betty 
ventured a step further. 

“ I had fifty cents before, so that makes 
a dollar and ten cents, and I 'm going to 
earn some more, and — and — " 

“ Well, what is it you want to say?" 
Mrs. Sparrow asked nervously. 

cc I was going to say, — I — I want to 
ask — if I sew carpet rags three hours 
every day all vacation, and don't complain 
a bit, may I spend my money for a white 
dress, 'cause I never had one, and — 
and — " 

Up went the white apron over her face. 
She could go no further for the sobs 
that were choking her. 

How still the room was and what pain- 

87 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


ful hours the moments seemed before her 
mother spoke to her! The appeal that 
her little daughter had made was so 
pathetic that Mrs. Sparrow's heart was 
moved, but she did not care to let Betty 
know it. 

“ You must never tell me again when 
you want anything, that your father says 
you can have it, before you ask me. Do 
you understand ? " 

“ Yes, mother." 

“Well, now go along and play, and 
don't stand there crying." 

But Betty still stood as though she 
was fastened to the floor and could not 
move. 

“ I 'm not going to say anything more. 
Perhaps you can have it, and perhaps 
you can't." 

Oh, what light and hope there were 
in those words ! 

Betty felt herself drawn across the room 
to her mother’s side. And then some- 
88 


BETTY SPARROW’S DRESS 


thing happened that never had happened 
before in her life, at least not since she 
had been old enough to remember. She 
dared to put up her lips for her mother 
to kiss, and her mother bent and kissed 
her ! She never knew how she came to 
do it. It must have been part of the 
day dream, she thought afterwards. 

Poor Mrs. Sparrow was even more 
surprised than Betty, but she was pleased 
too ; and the more she thought about it, 
the warmer her heart grew. 

Nothing more was said about the white 
dress that day, or the next, or the next. 
Mrs. Sparrow felt it would not be wise 
to let Betty think she could win her own 
way too easily. 

But Betty knew that her mother had 
never been so kind to her, and she 
dropped potatoes every forenoon and 
sewed carpet rags in the afternoon, and 
was hopeful and happy. 

At last, on the third day, when she was 
89 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


rolling up the yards of carpet rags she 
had sewed into a hard blue ball, her 
suspense came to a joyful end. 

“ I ’ve counted up the hours you ’ve 
sewed this last week. How many do 
you think I can credit you with ? ” asked 
Mrs. Sparrow. 

“ I don’t know, I ’m sure,” said Betty. 

“ Well, you Ve sewed ten hours. I have 
been thinking, if your father pays you for 
dropping potatoes, it ’s no more than right 
I should pay you for sewing carpet rags. 
How will ten cents an hour do ? ” 

<c Oh, won’t I earn lots of money, 
though! Are you really going to pay 
me?” cried Betty. 

“ Yes ; I ’ll pay you until this carpet is 
done. I want to get it down this fall 
when we clean house.” 

“ I ’ll sew as many hours a day as you’ll 
let me,” said Betty, longing to speak of 
the white dress, but not daring to. 

“ You may buy a pink sash and shoul- 
90 


BETTY SPARROW’S DRESS 


der-ribbons with the money you earn 
from me if you want to.” 

Betty’s eyes opened wide. She was 
too astonished to say a word. 

cc Go to my second bureau drawer and 
see what you ’ll find,” said her mother, 
nodding. Betty flew into the next room 
and pulled open the drawer, and there 
lay in soft folds a dainty white dotted 
muslin dress. Even in her dreams Betty 
had never seen anything so beautiful. She 
danced around the room and screamed 
with delight. Mrs. Sparrow stood in the 
door and smiled. 

If you had seen Betty’s mother then, 
you would never have guessed that she 
could be stern or unloving. 

“ I want you to keep your money 
that ’s in your bank, and what your father 
gives you for Christmas money, just as 
you always do. I can buy you a dress 
when you need it myself,” she said. 

It was fortunate that Betty was too 
9 1 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


young to understand any inconsistency 
in her mothers character. She was only 
glad and happy, and felt sure that no 
little girl in the world ever had a better 
mother than hers. 

It was not many days before the dress 
was made and ready to be worn. It 
was made low in the neck, with short 
puffed sleeves, and the skirt was trimmed 
with tiny ruffles all the way to the waist. 

When Betty first put it on, with the 
beautiful new pink sash and shoulder- 
ribbons, she really had to pinch herself, 
when she saw herself in the looking-glass, 
to realize that she was awake. 

It was still three weeks before the 
Fourth of July picnic, so Betty wore the 
dress to church on two happy Sundays, 
and sat across the aisle from Gracie Newell 
in her white dress, and both were as proud 
as little peacocks. 

The morning of the picnic came at 
last. As early as ten o'clock the people 
9 2 


BETTY SPARROW’S DRESS 


began to gather under the elms along the 
bank of Stony River. 

The fathers were hanging great swings 
from the far-reaching branches of the 
trees, and the mothers were bustling 
about, planning where the tables should 
be laid for dinner. 

There were merry hammers where the 
band-stand was being built. In the after- 
noon a splendid brass band was coming 
down from the city. 

There was a lemonade counter where 
torpedoes and fire-crackers and flags of 
all sizes could be bought for a wonderfully 
small sum. 

And of course there was a merry-go- 
round. What would a celebration be 
without a merry-go-round ? 

It would have been hard to tell who 
were the children, and who the grown 
people, except for the difference in sizes, 
for all had forgotten how old they were, 
and all were acting like children. 

93 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Even Mrs. Sparrow, who was usually 
very quiet and sedate, went singing about 
her work that morning, as happy as Betty 
or her father. 

Betty had finished dressing, and stood 
in the front door, with the ten soft ruffles 
of her white dress fluttering about her like 
the petals of a flower, when Grade Newell 
came running up the road. 

<c Mother can’t go to the picnic ; she 
says I can go with you in your wagon,” 
she panted, all out of breath. 

“ Oh, goody ! I’m so glad ! ” cried 
Betty, jumping up and down. “ Mother, 
Gracie ’s come to go with us.” 

In a few minutes they were all in the 
wagon trundling away to the picnic, the 
two little girls chattering like magpies. 

“ I ’m going to buy six bunches of fire- 
crackers and three packages of torpedoes,” 
said Gracie. <c How many are you going 
to have, Betty ? ” 

“ I guess I ’m only going to have a 
94 


BETTY SPARROW’S DRESS 


package of torpedoes, but I don’t care ; 
I ’m afraid of fire-crackers.” 

“ Oh, I ’m not. I ’d dare hold one in 
my hand when it ’s going off.” 

“Would you? I wouldn’t dare for 
the world. Have you any money to ride 
on the merry-go-round, Gracie ? ” 

“No. Have you ? ” 

“ No.” 

They were both silent for a moment, 
and their small faces were very wistful. 

“ How pretty your dress is, Betty ! 
Mine had to be washed, so it does n’t 
look new a bit any more.” 

“It stands out lovely, just as though 
you had on hoops,” said Betty, patting 
Gracie’s stiffly starched ruffles. 

“ I coaxed mother for a sash like yours, 
but she says she ’s afraid it would make 
me too proud.” 

“ I ’m just glad about mine ; I ’m not 
proud,” said Betty, with a smile and a 
little sigh of satisfaction. 

95 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


And then they drove into the picnic- 
grounds. The woods were noisy with the 
sound of fire-crackers and the voices of 
every one talking and laughing. 

Mr. Sparrow helped the children from 
the wagon, and they ran to join the other 
children. The long, happy day was 
before them. 

They sat together in one of the swings 
and were swung by a strong man high 
up among the branches. Then each had 
a swing alone. Betty had had her turn, 
and was dancing about, waiting for Gracie, 
when all at once a terrible thing hap- 
pened. 

Some one called, “ Look out there, 
little girl, there ’s a fire-cracker going off 
in the grass near you.” 

Betty jumped and screamed. The fire- 
cracker went off with a quick report right 
under her feet, and the next instant the 
entire front of her thin white dress was 
in flames ! 


96 


BETTY SPARROW’S DRESS 


The boy who had thrown the fire- 
cracker ran up and caught her dress 
together in his hands, instantly smother- 
ing the flames, and then fell back, pale 
and frightened. 

Betty dropped down in the grass and 
cried aloud. 

A crowd had gathered around her. 
Her father pushed his way among them 
and bent over her. 

“Are you burned, daughter? Tell 
father.” 

“No, oh, no; but my dress is all 
burned up ! ” sobbed Betty. 

“Never mind your dress, if you’re 
not burned,” said her mother, running 
up with a white face. “ What a careless 
boy ! ” 

The boy who had been careless had 
crept away into the woods. 

Mrs. Sparrow stood Betty on her feet, 
and the treasured white dress fell away 
from her in small black flakes ! 


7 


97 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


The pink silk sash was unharmed, and 
so were the little pink shoulder-ribbons. 
Her mother took them off, and said they 
would look just as well with another dress 
some time ; and Betty smiled through her 
tears and was comforted, though she was 
sure there could never be another dress 
like that first white dress. 

The children made her an overskirt of 
some of the red, white, and blue bunting, 
that had been used to drape the band- 
stand, so she would not have to go home 
and change her dress and miss any of 
the fun. 

One of the men gave her ten cents, and 
she rode on the merry-go-round as long 
as she pleased. 

The little boy who had thrown the 
fire-cracker came back from the woods 
and said how sorry he was, and bought 
her a dish of ice-cream and four packages 
of torpedoes. 


98 


A HOMESICK STORY 


A HOMESICK STORY 
I 

“ Nellie Keith is going to Indiana alone 
on the cars to see her Aunt Louise and 
stay two weeks ! ” 

Mrs. Merwin looked up from her sew- 
ing, as her little daughter ran into the 
room with this startling announcement. 

“ Oh, I guess you Ye mistaken. Her 
mother would never think of letting her 
go so far alone.” 

“Yes, she does. She’s getting her 
clothes ready. She said her Aunt Louise 
had always wanted Nellie to come and 
make her a visit, and her father says 
she won’t have to change cars, and she 
can just as well go as not.” 

Carrie had been at Nellie’s house 
playing, all the afternoon, and had just 
come home. 


99 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


She sat down in the doorway fanning 
herself with her little white sun-bonnet. 

“ I wish I could ever go anywhere. 
I ’ve never even been to Chicago, and 
Nellie’s been there three times, and now 
she ’s going clear to Indiana ! ” 

“Well, perhaps your time to go will 
come some day. When is Nellie 
going ? ” 

“To-morrow. She asked me to come 
and go with them to see her off. May 

I?” 

“ I ’ll see, if you are a good girl.” 

Carrie rested her chin in her hands and 
looked across the fields where Nellie’s 
house was just in sight among the fruit- 
trees. 

“ I wish I was Nellie Keith or some- 
body,” she thought; “she just does 
everything she wants to, and goes every- 
where, and never gets scolded, and her 
father and mother pet her all the time, 
and mine never do.” 


IOO 


A HOMESICK STORY 


The little girls lived on adjoining 
farms. They were very beautiful farms, 
with large orchards and berry patches 
and grain fields. The river and the 
woods were half a mile to the west. 
Beyond the woods was the village and 
the railroad station where Nellie would 
take the train for Indiana. 

Carrie sat in envious silence for some 
time. Her mother was running the 
sewing-machine and paid no attention to 
her, but at last she turned and said, — 

“It's time you were hunting the 
eggs, Carrie. You ’ve been resting long 
enough.” 

Carrie stood up slowly, wiping away 
her tears. 

<c Come now, I don’t think you have 
anything to cry about,” her mother said 
crossly. “ I ’m sure you Ve been off 
playing all the afternoon. I don’t know 
what you expect. I’m sure I never go 
anywhere either. The Merwins were 


IOI 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


always fond of going. I think there ’s 
such a thing as going too much as well 
as going too little. I have n’t a doubt 
Nellie will get homesick inside of two 
days.” 

“ I guess I could stay away from home 
without getting homesick if I had the 
chance ! ” Carrie sobbed out. 

cc Stop wiping your face on your clean 
apron, and run on and get the eggs 
before dark.” 

“ I never go anywhere ; I just stay 
home forever and ever and ever ! ” 

“ You ’re going to camp-meeting next 
week. I ’m sure you always enjoy that. 
I was going to keep it a surprise for you, 
but I suppose I might as well tell you 
we ’re going to have a tent this year, and 
stay on the camp-ground all the two 
weeks.” 

Carrie’s hands dropped from her face. 

“ Are we ? Did father say so ? ” 

“ Yes ; and I want to make you a 


102 


A HOMESICK STORY 


new dress between now and Tuesday, 
so you 'll have to help me all you 
can.” 

“ I will. Oh, goody, I 'm so glad ! 
I guess Nellie will most wish she was n't 
going, so she could stay down in our 
tent and have fun.” 

“Well, I don't think camp-meeting 
is a place to talk of having fun in, but I 
shall be glad myself to get a change from 
the house. Now run along and hunt 
the eggs, for you must help get supper.” 

Camp-meeting was always a great 
interest, in August, to the children as 
well as the grown people in the country 
around. It was held in Cold Spring 
Grove, five miles away. 

Those who went from their homes to 
attend the meetings thought how pleas- 
ant it would be to have a tent and enjoy 
the rest and freedom of outdoor life, and 
at the same time be present at all the 
meetings. 

103 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Nellie’s little trunk was strapped and 
in the wagon, and Nellie and her mother 
sat up on the back seat, ready to start for 
the station the next morning, when Carrie 
came running down the road, waving her 
hat. 

Mr. Keith was opening the gate, and 
he waved his hand and called, “ All right ; 
hurry up ; we ’ll wait for you.” 

Nellie bounced up and down on the 
spring seat. 

“ Oh, I ’m so glad you can go, Carrie,” 
she called. “ Hurry up, or I ’ll miss the 
train.” 

“ I told mother you ’d be gone, but 
she would n’t let me come a minute 
sooner,” Carrie said, as she came running 
breathlessly up to the side of the wagon. 

Mr. Keith lifted her up to the front 
seat, and jumped in himself, and off they 
started. 

“ Oh, Carrie,” said Nellie, <c I ’m 
awfully scared about going on the train 
104 


A HOMESICK STORY 


alone. I was n’t a bit till this morning. 
I told mamma I just believed I ’d stay 
home.” 

Mr. Keith laughed. “ It ’s a little late 
in the day to think of backing out when 
we ’ve written Uncle Ben to come and 
meet you.” 

“ Oh, I ’m not going to back out, but 
I ’m a little frightened ! ” 

“ I wish you would n’t go because 
we ’re going to have a tent at camp-meet- 
ing this year, and you could stay down 
with me all you pleased,” said Carrie, 
with a grand air. 

“Are you? Wouldn’t we have fun? 
Oh, I wish I had n’t said I ’d go till 
camp-meeting was out.” 

“Why, Nellie, camp-meeting isn’t a 
place to have fun ! ” said her mother, 
reprovingly. 

“We always have a lot of fun, anyway, 
don’t we, Carrie ? I should like to sleep 
in a tent ; I never did in my life.” 

I0 5 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


cc Little girls are hard to please,” said 
her mother. “ Day before yesterday you 
thought you could n’t be happy if you 
didn’t go to Indiana right away. I’d 
just as soon you would stay at home even 
now if you want to. I don’t know but 
I ’m foolish to let you go off alone, any- 
way.” 

Mr. Keith turned and smiled at his 
little daughter. 

“Shall I telegraph Uncle Ben that 
you ’re not coming ? ” 

The truth was, both Mr. and Mrs. 
Keith were regretting having given their 
consent to her going, as the time for 
separation drew near. 

She was their only child, and this was 
the first time she had ever been away 
from them for a night in her life. 

“ I think I ’d rather go; Aunt Louise 
will feel so sorry if I don’t,” Nellie an- 
swered. Her rosy face had grown quite 
pale. 

106 


A HOMESICK STORY 


They were driving along a wood road, 
and the way was very beautiful. At any 
other time Nellie would have heard the 
birds singing, and the water gurgling over 
the stones in the creek ; but now she only 
heard her little heart beating, and felt the 
mist of tears that would come into her 
eyes. 

Her mother put her arm around her 
close, and her father turned often and 
smiled at her, and said, — 

“ Remember you Ve got until you get 
to the station to change your mind.” 

“You think I’m going to cry, papa, 
but I ’m not ; I ’m not going to cry a 
little weenty-teenty bit,” said Nellie, 
bravely, “ and I ’m going because they 
expect me.” 

The smile on her face in her effort to 
keep the tears back was very funny. 

They drove out of the woods and up 
through the one street of the village to 
the station. 

107 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


There were only ten minutes before the 
train was due, and, oh, how quickly those 
ten minutes passed ! Nellie was so excited 
that she did not hear her father’s and 
mother’s loving messages to Uncle Ben 
and Aunt Louise, or anything that Carrie 
said to her. 

The train came steaming noisily up to 
the station. Her father gave her into 
the charge of the conductor; the engine 
whistled, and the train moved, and Nellie 
was left to go on her journey alone. 

She watched those three dear faces 
smiling after her from the platform until 
suddenly they were lost to sight, and 
then she looked timidly around the car. 

There were only five people in the car 
besides herself, and they all seemed to be 
looking at her. No doubt they were 
wondering where such a little girl could 
be going all alone. 

A tall old gentleman, in a tightly but- 
toned black coat who sat in a seat near 
108 


A HOMESICK STORY 


the door, smiled at her, and presently 
came down the aisle and sat down in the 
seat with her. 

cc Well, little girl, where are you travel- 
ling to ? ” he asked. 

“ I ’m going to Clayton, Indiana, to 
see my Aunt Louise and stay two weeks,” 
answered Nellie. She did not feel at all 
afraid of him, he looked so kindly at her. 

“ That’s quite a journey for a little 
maiden to make by herself.” 

<c Yes ; but the conductor is going to 
take care of me, and tell me when to get 
off, — papa told him to, — and I don’t 
have to change cars.” 

The old gentleman smiled. “That 
will be all right, if the conductor does n’t 
forget you,” he said. He did not know 
what fear this thought would give Nellie, 
or you may be sure he would not have 
said it. 2 

He gave Nellie an orange from his 
pocket, and showed her another that he was 
109 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


carrying to his little granddaughter, who 
he said was about her age. At the next 
station he said good-bye, and Nellie was 
left alone again. 

Never in all her life did she pass more 
uncomfortable hours than those that fol- 
lowed. She watched the conductor as he 
came and went through the car, and won- 
dered if he had forgotten her, but for some 
time did not have courage to speak to 
him. 

At last, as he passed her seat, she 
touched his arm. 

“ Please, have we come to Clayton 
yet ? ” she asked timidly. 

He looked down at her and smiled. 
“ Oh, no, my little girl, we ’re not half- 
way there,” he replied. 

“ You won’t forget to tell me, will 
you ? ” 

“ No, no, you can depend on me; I ’ll 
put you off all right.” 

After this reassurance she looked out 


no 


A HOMESICK STORY 


of the window at the flying country, and 
thought of Aunt Louise and Uncle Ben, 
and the pleasure of seeing them, and the 
time passed almost happily for an hour or 
more ; then she grew sleepy, and before 
she knew it she was sound asleep, her 
little head resting against the window. 

She only slept for a few minutes ; but 
when she woke, with a sudden jolting 
of the car, she thought she had been 
asleep for a long, long time. She sat up 
frightened, and looked around'. Every 
one in the car was asleep. One old lady 
was breathing loudly, with queer, puffing 
noises. 

The conductor was in one of the other 
cars. 

What if he had forgotten her, after all, 
and they had passed Clayton while she 
was asleep ! 

She got up and went to the door, 
and looked through into the next car. 
Every one seemed to be asleep in there 


hi 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


too ; and, yes, there in a seat near the 
door was the conductor, and his eyes 
were closed ! 

He was not so sound asleep but that 
he heard everything that was going on, 
however, and his eyes opened as Nellie 
turned to go back to her seat. 

She sat there for a long time, growing 
cold with fear, her little heart beating 
wildly. At last, when it seemed as 
though she could endure it no longer, 
and was thinking of crossing the swaying 
platform between the two cars and waking 
the conductor, he came smiling down the 
aisle to her seat. 

“ When will we get there ? ” she asked, 
standing to meet him. 

“ There, now, I declare I did forget 
you, did n't I ? ” 

There was a merry twinkle in his eye 
that Nellie did not see. 

“ What shall I do ? ” she asked with 
quivering lips. 


A HOMESICK STORY 


“ Oh, I ’ll put you off at the next 
station and you can walk back. It is n’t 
more than five miles. Here we are now. 
Clayton ! ” he shouted so that all in the 
car could hear. “ Next stop, Clayton ! ” 

Nellie caught his coat sleeve. 

“ You said Clayton,” she gasped. “ Is 
it my Clayton ? ” 

“Yes, it’s yours; I was just joking 
you,” the conductor laughed. “ Did you 
ever see any one who looked like that 
man there on the platform ? ” He pointed 
out of the window as the train slowly 
drew up to the station. 

Nellie looked. “Why! why! it’s 
Uncle Ben! That’s my Uncle Ben!” 
she cried. 

“ I thought likely,” said the conductor, 
laughing and holding out his hand. 
“ Come on ! ” And in another minute 
he had lifted her from the steps, and she 
was in Uncle Ben’s arms. 

XI 3 


8 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


II 

To Nellie, who had always lived on a 
farm, Clayton seemed like a city, but it 
was really only a very small town. 

Her Uncle Ben owned one of the 
principal stores, and his house was in the 
adjoining yard. 

It was a very pretty white cottage with 
a piazza on three sides, covered with run- 
ning rose-bushes. There were a great 
many different kinds of rose-bushes all 
about the yard, and roses of all colors 
were in bloom. Nellie thought she had 
never seen a prettier home. 

“ You 'll have to help me keep store,” 
Uncle Ben said as they went up the path 
to the house. “ But you must promise 
not to eat more candy than you sell.” 

“ Won’t it be fun!” Nellie said, hug- 
ging his hand. cc Will you truly let me 
sell things, Uncle Ben ? ” 

“Yes, I mean to set you right to 


A HOMESICK STORY 


work,” he said, laughing. “ Do you see 
that house across the street ? ” he asked, 
stopping ; “ well, Mrs. Marks lives over 
there, and she has a little boy and girl 
about your age that you can play with.” 

Nellie looked over at the house where 
the little Marks children lived, with great 
interest. 

“ It looks like a nice place to play,” 
she thought ; “ the yard ’s so big, and 
there ’s a summer-house.” 

It seemed there could be no doubt of 
Nellie's having a beautiful time on her 
visit. 

Just then Aunt Louise came running 
out on the piazza and caught her in her 
arms, and kissed and hugged her, and said 
how glad she was to see her. 

She* was a very young auntie, and Nellie 
always said that she had as good times 
playing with her as with any little girl she 
knew. 

All that evening she was very happy 
IX 5 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


and contented. Aunt Louise rocked her 
to sleep, — a luxury she had long ago 
outgrown at home, if a little girl ever can 
outgrow the pleasure of falling asleep in 
loving arms. 

She did not know when Uncle Ben 
carried her upstairs to bed, and did not 
wake all night. 

After breakfast the next morning Aunt 
Louise went with her across the street 
and introduced her to Eva and Willie 
Marks. 

Willie had a Shetland pony, and Nellie 
won his admiration by not being afraid to 
ride as fast as he dared go himself. In 
the afternoon she went to the store with 
Uncle Ben, and he let her wait on one 
of the customers, and she felt very useful 
and important. He gave her some candy 
and nuts for herself, and she went over and 
gave some to Willie and Eva Marks, 
and they all sat in the summer-house to 
eat them and talk. 

116 


A HOMESICK STORY 


Nellie talked about home and about 
Carrie Merwin’s tent at camp-meeting. 

“ I guess if Carrie knew what a good 
time I am having, she wouldn’t think I 
cared so much if I do have to miss stay- 
ing in her tent,” she said. 

Eva was quite sure, and so was Willie, 
that they would far rather have stayed at 
home and gone to the camp-meeting. 

When they had finished eating the 
candy and nuts, they went to the swing, 
that hung from a big silver poplar back 
of the house, and Willie swung Nellie 
with ten “ run-unders,” high up among 
the green leaves ; then they all told rid- 
dles while the “ old cat died.” 

Finally, it began to grow dark, and Aunt 
Louise came and called her to supper, and 
so ended the first happy day. 

That night Nellie went to bed without 
being rocked. Aunt Louise went up- 
stairs with her, and tucked her into bed, 
and then went away and left her. 

117 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


She was very tired with her long day 
of play, but she could not go to sleep. 

It was a beautiful summer night. The 
windows were open, and the room was 
flooded with moonlight. The perfume 
of the roses made the air very sweet. 

She sat up in bed, hugging her knees, 
and listened. The katydids and the tree- 
toads were having a concert. 

“ Papa is reading aloud and mamma is 
sewing, most likely,” she thought. “ I 
wonder if they are thinking about me ; 
I wonder if they wish I were home.” 

There was a dull little ache in her 
throat, and the outside world seemed very 
large and still, in spite of the music of the 
katydids and the tree-toads. 

“ I guess if Carrie could see Willie 
Marks’s pony and ride on it, she would n’t 
think I cared about missing the tent. I 
wonder how big it is. 

“ I guess mamma will wish I was home 
to pick up chips when she ’s ironing to- 


A HOMESICK STORY 


morrow.” She drew a deep little sigh. 
cc I guess papa would like to see me 
pretty well.” Then down went her head 
under the bed-clothes, and Nellie sobbed 
out her first homesickness. 

“I don’t want to go home,” she kept 
saying to herself, and all the while visions 
of home were crowding before her, and her 
throat was choked with longing. 

The next morning when she woke it 
was raining, and it continued to rain all 
day. Aunt Louise was busy baking in 
the morning. She let Nellie make some 
little pies, and in the afternoon Eva and 
Willie Marks came over, and they had a 
play dinner out on the piazza. They 
played hide-and-seek too, and Aunt 
Louise let them romp all over the house. 
She played with them and made as much 
noise as any one. 

After Eva and Willie had gone, Nellie 
stood by the window looking out at the 
rain, and Aunt Louise was surprised to 
119 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


see two big tears chasing down her 
cheeks. 

“Why, Nellie, darling, what is the 
matter ? ” she asked. 

“ I guess my stomach aches ; I ache 
awful right here,” sobbed the little girl, 
pressing her hand on her chest. 

Aunt Louise suspected at once that it 
was a homesick ache, but she put a little 
peppermint in some hot water, and Nellie 
drank it and said she felt better. 

Uncle Ben could play wonderfully 
well on the violin, and he played Nellie 
a great many tunes that evening, and 
sang her funny songs. Aunt Louise cut 
out paper dolls for her, with beautiful 
dresses of colored tissue-paper, and she 
was happy again until she was in bed 
and alone. 

She did not pretend even to herself 
that she did not know why her heart 
ached so terribly now. 

“ Oh, I want to go home ! I want to 


120 


A HOMESICK STORY 


see mamma and papa ! ” she cried aloud 
under the bed-clothes. 

It seemed years before the two weeks 
of her visit would end, and she felt that 
she would surely, surely die if she had to 
stay. 

At last she fell asleep and dreamed 
sweet dreams of home. 

When Aunt Louise went upstairs to 
bed, she looked into Nellie's room to see 
that all was right. 

<c Mamma ! mamma!” Nellie called 
out in her sleep. Aunt Louise went over 
to the bed, and saw a little tear-stained 
face on the pillow. 

cc Poor darling ! she cried herself to 
sleep. If she is as homesick as that, she 
shall go home.” 

But the next morning Nellie seemed so 
bright and happy that Aunt Louise de- 
cided the homesickness had passed away. 

Willie and Eva had promised to take 
Nellie to the woods west of town some 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


day while she was there, and she went 
over after breakfast to see if they could go 
that day. She found Eva helping her 
mother, and Willie weeding flower-beds, 
so she went out to the summer-house 
to wait until they had finished their 
work. 

It was a very pretty summer-house 
covered with a honeysuckle-vine. As 
soon as she was alone, the pain of home- 
sickness began again to tug at Nellie’s 
heart. 

“ Oh, dear ! I wish mamma would 
write and say I must come home right 
away ! I can’t stay here two great long 
weeks ! I just believe I ’ll pray for some- 
thing to happen so I ’ll have to go 
home.” 

The honeysuckle-vine completely hid 
her from view. She knelt down quickly. 
“ Oh, God, please, please, please let me go 
home,” she began. 

“Nellie, come play mumble-ty-peg ; 


122 


A HOMESICK STORY 


I ’m through weeding,” Willie Marks 
called. <c Come on ; I ’ve got papa’s 
knife.” 

He was watering the flowers with the 
garden-hose, and just for fun he turned it 
full upon the summer-house. Through 
the honeysuckles and the lattice-work of 
the summer-house the water came in a 
sudden shower, and Nellie was drenched 
to the skin. 

She sprang to her feet frightened and 
angry, as Willie ran up to the door. 

“ I did n’t mean to let it come so hard,” 
said Willie ; “ I only meant to sprinkle 
you ; ” and then he began to jump up and 
down and laugh, Nellie did look so be- 
draggled and funny. 

Eva came running out of the house to 
see what was the matter, and she laughed 
too. That was more than Nellie could 
endure, and down she dropped in a wet 
little heap on the ground and cried as 
though her heart was broken. 

123 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Both children said they were sorry they 
had laughed, and coaxed her to get up, 
but Nellie only moaned and would not 
stir. 

“ You ’ll catch your death a-cold, Nellie 
Keith ; I ’m going to tell your Aunt 
Louise,” said Eva ; and away she ran. 

Aunt Louise came back with Eva. 

“ I would n’t be a baby and cry over a 
little ducking, Nellie,” she said, laughing; 
“ come home and change your clothes, 
and you ’ll be all right.” 

“ I ’m not crying because I ’m wet,” 
Nellie sobbed, “ or because they laughed. 
I want to go home ! ” She raised a tragic 
little face. “ Oh, Aunt Louise, can't I 
go home ? ” 

“You poor little drowned kitten, of 
course you can go home, if you want 
to ! ” Aunt Louise said, helping her to 
her feet. 

Eva and Willie followed her to the 
gate with sympathetic faces. 

124 



V ’ 

-it i 





Wj 

SPBaf 

'//foL 

fl 









■ ■ ■ 















































































A HOMESICK STORY 


And so the two weeks* visit came to an 
end in three days ! 

Uncle Ben and Eva and Willie went 
with her to the station in time to take the 
nine o’clock train the next morning. 

Nellie had brought the money for her 
return ticket in her little red velvet purse, 
and Aunt Louise had put her purse with 
her hat and gloves before she had started 
for the station, so she would be sure not 
to forget it. 

But some way, in the joy and excite- 
ment of starting, she did forget it, and 
only remembered it when they had 
reached the station five minutes before 
the train was due. 

There was no time to go back for it 
then, and Uncle Ben happened not to 
have a bit of money with him. 

“ I don’t see but you ’ll have to wait 
until to-morrow, Nellie,” he said; “this 
is the only through train to-day, and you 
can’t go without money.” 

125 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ Oh, I can’t go back now ! I must go 
home ! ” the little girl cried, bursting into 
tears. She ran up to the ticket agent’s 
window, her eager little face just reaching 
the sill. 

“Won’t you please, Mr. Agent, let me 
go home? I forgot my money, but 
Aunt Louise will bring it to you. I 
can’t go back now.” 

There was a moment’s terrible sus- 
pense. 

“Well, you see, we never trust for 
tickets, little girl,” he said. 

Nellie covered her face with both 
hands. 

“Oh, Uncle Ben, I must go home,” 
she wailed. 

The ticket agent slipped a ticket 
through the window. 

“ Here, I can’t say c no ’ to a little 
girl who wants to go home as badly 
as that,” he said ; “ I remember being 
homesick once, when I was a boy about 
126 


A HOMESICK STORY 


your age, and I walked twenty miles 
to see my mother. There's your train, 
run ! ” 

Nellie caught up the ticket and thanked 
him, smiling through her tears, and was 
out of the door like a flash. A moment 
more, and she was on the train, speeding 
away toward home ! 

Only those who have been homesick 
can know how happy she was. 

The journey was full of interest, and 
seemed much shorter than when she was 
going. There was a little boy in the seat 
opposite hers, who was blind. He was 
travelling alone, just as she was, and she 
heard him tell a gentleman who spoke to 
him that he had been in Indianapolis 
studying music. 

He was a very beautiful boy, with fair 
curls and rosy cheeks. It did not seem 
as if his blue eyes could be sightless, 
they were so full of feeling. 

Nellie was delighted when, all at once, 
127 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


he leaned over the arm of his seat and 
asked her if she would please bring him 
a drink of water. 

“ I knew you were a little girl,” he 
told her, as he handed her back the 
cup, “ so I was n’t afraid to speak to 

yy 

you. 

“ How did you know I was a little 
girl ? ” asked Nellie, in surprise. 

“ By the way you moved in your seat ; 
I can tell people by sounds, that quick.” 
He snapped his fingers. “ If you’ll sit 
down I ’ll tell you about the people in all 
the seats near. Across the aisle there is 
an old lady with a little boy.” 

“ Why, I believe you can see ! ” said 
Nellie, quite startled. 

“ I see with my ears,” the blind boy 
answered, laughing. 

“ There are two young ladies three 
seats behind me ; is that right ? ” 

“ Yes, how can you tell ? ” 

“ They ’ve been talking and laughing 
128 


A HOMESICK STORY 


together. I knew by their voices. I had 
harder work to guess about you because 
you kept so still. I ’d just about given 
you up when you sighed.” 

“ How funny ! I did n’t know I 
sighed.” 

“ Oh, it was a glad sigh,” he replied ; 
“ you ’re going home, I guess ? ” 

cc Why, how do you know ? ” exclaimed 
Nellie, more and more amazed. 

“You sighed as I do when I get 
through with something disagreeable,” he 
said; “only I’m never homesick, because 
I ’m away from home almost all the 
time.” 

Nellie’s face flushed. “ I ’ve never 
been away from home before,” she said 
softly. 

“ There ! ” cried the blind boy, laugh- 
ing and clapping his hands. “I guessed 
you ’d been homesick ! ” 

Nellie thought he was the most won- 
derful boy she had ever known. 

9 129 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“Tell me all about your home, won’t 
you, please ? ” he asked. 

And Nellie gladly described to him the 
little red house among the fruit-trees, the 
fields and the woods, and her dear mother 
and father. 

“ My home is n’t worth talking about,” 
he said when she had finished. “ I wish 
I was going in the other direction now.” 

His face grew very unhappy for a mo- 
ment, and then brightened. “ I ’ll play 
you a tune.” And taking from its case 
a beautiful silver-mounted flute, he began 
to play. 

Nellie had never in all her life heard 
such lovely music. As the final notes 
died softly away, the people in the car 
began to applaud. 

The blind boy rose to his feet and 
smiled and bowed. 

“ Oh, play some more, please play 
some more ! ” begged Nellie. 

The second piece was even more lovely 
130 


A HOMESICK STORY 


than the first. There were clear ascend- 
ing notes like those of the meadow- 
lark. 

The people in the car were greatly- 
pleased, and some one proposed that a 
collection should be taken up. Nellie 
was asked to pass around the hat. 

She felt very important as she went 
smiling from seat to seat. 

There were five bright silver dollars 
dropped into the hat, besides three other 
dollars in small change. It was a very 
exciting moment. 

“ I help pay for my own lessons,” he 
told Nellie as she counted the money into 
his hand, Cf and this will help me ever so 
much.” 

Just then the conductor passed through 
the car and called the name of the station 
where Nellie had to get out. She was 
very sorry to leave her new friend, and 
wondered if they would ever see each 
other again. 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


But in the two miles’ walk through the 
woods from the station, the little girl 
forgot the blind boy and thought only 
of home, and how glad and surprised 
her mother and father would be to see 
her. 

It was beginning to grow dark when 
she reached the gate before the house. 
The lamp was lit, and she could see her 
mother moving back and forth, setting the 
table for supper. 

Years afterward Nellie remembered just 
how happy she felt that moment. 

She ran up the walk and stood in the 
open door. 

“ Mamma ! ” she cried, cc I *ve come 
home ! ” 

Her mother turned with an exclama- 
tion of surprise, and then held out her 
arms ; and after a few minutes her 
father came in, and he seemed equally 
delighted. 

“ Home is the best place for a little 
132 


A HOMESICK STORY 


girl, is n’t it ? ” he said, as she sat on his 
knee and they all talked together. 

“Yes, it is,” Nellie answered with a 
satisfied sigh. “And now I can go to 
camp-meeting and sleep in Carrie Mer- 
win’s tent some night.” 


i33 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 

“Now, Abbie, put up your feathers and 
run out and play awhile before the sun 
goes down.” 

“Why, have I been clipping an hour, 
grandma ? ” 

“Yes, an hour and ten minutes. 
You’ll only have to clip fifty minutes 
to-morrow.” 

Abbie sat on a low stool with a pan of 
turkey feathers in her lap. On the floor 
by her side was a pillow-case half filled 
with the down she had clipped from the 
quills of the feathers. 

“ I guess I ’ll have to clip an hour a 
day a good many weeks before I ’ll have 
enough down for a pair of pillows, 
grandma. The pillow-case does n’t seem 
i34 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


to have any more in it than it did yester- 
day.” 

cc Well, it has. Just think how proud 
you ’ll be of those pillows when you are a 
woman. We don’t have anything in this 
world unless we work for it.” Grandma 
let her knitting rest in her lap, and looked 
away out of the open door. “ I said, c we 
don’t have anything in this world unless 
we work for it,’ ” she repeated, after a 
minute; “that’s a common saying, but I 
don’t know as it’s true. Some of the 
greatest blessings of our lives we never do 
a stroke of work for. Now you came to 
me, Abbie, and you ’re the greatest bless- 
ing I ever had ; and no account of my 
good works brought you to me, that’s 
sure.” 

“ Oh, grandma ! ” exclaimed the little 
girl. She dusted the feathers from her 
apron into the pan, and ran over and 
threw her arms around the old lady’s 
neck. 


i35 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Cf I ’m glad I came to live with you, 
and have you love me, and take care of 
me.” 

“ I ’d lived to be seventy years old, and 
I never was so happy about anything as I 
was the first time I held you in my arms,” 
grandma said, wiping the tears from her 
eyes. Abbie climbed up, and settled her- 
self comfortably on grandmas lap, and 
smiled up into her face. 

“You didn’t know I was alive at all, 
did you — not till I came ? ” 

“ No ; first intimation I had that I 
was n’t all alone in the world, there you 
stood in that door, smiling. c Grandma,’ 
says you, c I ’m Abbie, and I ’ve come to 
live with you.’ ” 

“ And you said, c Who are you ? ’ ” 
Abbie wrinkled her forehead, and spoke 
in a very cross tone. 

“ And you said, c I ’m Abbie Freeman, 
and you’re my grandma.’ ” Grandma im- 
itated Abbie’s voice as she had spoken at 
the time. 13 6 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


“ And you said, c I don’t see how that 
can be ; my only child died long before 
you were born.’ ” 

Grandma laughed and hugged Abbie 
up tight in her arms. 

“And you said, ‘No, he didn’t; my 
papa is n’t dead at all.’ ” 

“ And you said, ‘ Child, come here to 
me, and tell me what you mean ! ’ And 
I came, and you took me up on your lap, 
and I thought you ’d squeeze me to 
pieces.” 

“ What did I say to you then ? ” asked 
grandma, with shining eyes. 

“ You didn’t say anything. Papa 
walked in the door, and you tumbled 
me off of your lap, and he caught you in 
his arms, and you hugged and kissed, and 
kissed and hugged, and talked and talked 
and talked. And I went to sleep over 
there on the lounge, and when I woke up 
it was the next morning. Please don’t 
cry, grandma.” 


*37 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ I ’m smiling too, dearie ; and next day 
I told you how your papa ran away from 
his home when he was a boy, because his 
mother and father were n't good to him, 
and never came back ! ” 

“ Oh, grandma, he never said you were 
not good to him ! ” 

“ I was n’t, Abbie, I was n’t ; you can’t 
think what a tongue I had to scold and 
find fault. I thought I was doing it for 
his best good, but it helped to drive him 
away from home as much as his father’s 
whippings did.” 

Abbie, with her arms around grandma’s 
neck, was crying too. 

“ He stayed away ’cause he thought 
you were dead, grandma, not ’cause you 
were cross. You ’re not cross ; I guess I 
know ! ” 

“ I should hope I would n’t be now, 
after all I ’ve suffered.” They were both 
silent for a little while, then Abbie raised 
her face from grandma’s shoulder. 

138 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


“ When we first got here, papa said to 
the stage-driver, c We want to go out 
to the old Freeman place/ And the stage- 
driver said, ‘You’ll find Grandma Free- 
man spry as a cricket this spring/ Papa 
jumped, and his eyes looked like this,” 
Abbie opened her brown eyes very wide. 
“He said, ‘Mrs. Freeman was my mother; 
she died ten years ago. What do you 
mean? ’ and the stage-driver said, ‘ You ’ve 
been wrong informed; Mrs. Freeman ain’t 
no more dead than you be.’ ” 

Abbie’s tone was so much like the 
old stage-driver’s that grandma laughed 
aloud. 

“ What did your father say then, 
Abbie ? ” she asked eagerly. 

“ He did n’t say anything. He just 
hugged me, and cried all the way out 
here. When we got out of the stage at 
the gate, he told me to come in first and 
say what I did to you.” 

Grandma twisted one of Abbie’s curls. 


i39 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ Run upstairs to the dark closet, 
dearie; and on the top shelf, in the left- 
hand side, you ’ll find a green pasteboard 
box tied with a white ribbon. You bring 
it down ; there are some things in it I want 
to show you.” 

“ Oh, what are they, grandma ? ” 

“ Never mind ; run along and get it.” 

Abbie slipped off of grandma’s lap and 
ran to the stair door. 

“ You ’d better take your feathers up- 
stairs with you, and leave them in the 
sunshine in the hall,” said grandma. 

“ I don’t like to clip feathers very well, 
grandma,” Abbie said, while she was 
picking up the stray feathers from the 
floor. 

“ Don’t you ? Well, I would n’t do it, 
then. I thought you would be interested 
to do it ; but every one has a right to 
choose his own work, and so long as 
we ’re not lazy, it does n’t matter what 
we do.” 

140 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


“ I want to finish the pillows now I ’ve 
begun them,” said Abbie ; “ but it’s pretty 
slow work clipping every feather.” 

“ If I tell you a story while you are 
clipping, perhaps it would n’t seem so 
long.” 

<c Oh, grandma, would you ? ” 

“Why, yes, I guess I could. It will 
be as interesting as any story to hear 
about the things in the green box.” 

“ I ’d just as soon clip feathers all the 
afternoon if you ’ll tell stories,” said 
Abbie. 

She climbed the narrow stairway with the 
pan of feathers in the circle of one arm 
and the pillow-case of down in the other. 

She was very much excited, thinking 
about the contents of the green box, but 
she was even more excited thinking about 
going into the dark closet after it. 

The dark closet was a long narrow 
room, without a window, between two 
other rooms. 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Abbie had never been into it, but she 
had looked in, and discovered that it was 
large, and had many shelves covered with 
boxes. There were three old bureaus 
ranged along the wall, and on the hooks 
hung queer old-fashioned clothes. The 
room had interested Abbie ever since she 
came to live with her grandma, but it had 
frightened her a little too. It gave her the 
feeling one has on entering a strange and 
wonderful cave. She had longed to go 
into it, but she wanted some one to go 
in with her and carry a light. 

Grandma had said nothing about taking 
a light, so Abbie knew she expected her 
to go in without one. 

She opened the dark closet door and 
looked in. There was a pleasant odor of 
many perfumes, and the sunshine from 
the hall-window fell across the floor. It 
seemed much more inviting to enter alone 
than it had when she had looked into it 
before. 


142 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


She could see a bright red and green 
figured silk dress hanging on the farther 
wall, so the room was not very dark, after 
all. It was such an odd dress that Abbie 
went over and looked at it more closely. 
She could not believe grandma had ever 
worn such a gay gown. There were 
funny fan-shaped sleeves in it, and a little 
pointed waist. 

Abbie took the dress down, and, slipping 
it over her head, ran across the hall to her 
own room and fastened it on before the 
looking-glass. “ It looks like a flower- 
garden on a windy day ! ” Abbie said, 
laughing, and dancing around ; then she 
remembered the box for grandma. She 
ran back to the dark closet and looked 
for the box. 

It was nowhere in sight. She found a 
round tin box painted green, but grandma 
had said, cc a green pasteboard box tied 
with white ribbons.” 

Abbie raised the lid of the green 
i43 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


tin box and found there were buttons 
in it. 

“ Perhaps grandma will give me some 
of these for my button-string,” she 
thought, and she took down the box and 
went over to the door to look at the 
buttons for a moment. 

They were very beautiful. Any little 
girl with a button-string might have for- 
gotten everything in her delight over 
those buttons. Abbie sat down on the 
floor, and, taking them out one by one, 
held them up to the light. They were 
full of color and brightness, and seemed 
more like jewels than buttons. 

“ They ’d make a lovely necklace to 
wear with this funny old dress,” Abbie 
said aloud, — she always talked to herself 
when she was alone. 

She spread out the skirts of the flowery 
silk dress about her, and began putting the 
buttons one by one in her lap. 

All at once she was surprised by find- 
144 



I 

r 


/ 









- 








































































































































% 




























THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


ing she had taken out a silver three-cent 
piece instead of a button. Abbie was 
very much interested in coins. She 
looked at the date that was stamped on 
the three-cent piece and found that it had 
been made the same year that she was 
born, and she thought, “ I ’ll ask grandma 
if I can have it.” 

The next time she put her hand in the 
box she was again surprised by taking out 
a dime instead of a button ! 

How interesting the green button-box 
was after that ! First, a beautiful button, 
and then a piece of money, and as she 
went deeper among the buttons she 
found quarter-dollars and half-dollars and 
dollars. 

Finally, there were no more buttons, — 
the box was filled with money ! There 
had only been a layer of buttons placed 
on top to conceal the treasure. Greatly 
interested and excited, Abbie emptied it 
all out into her lap. 

i45 


10 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


In the bottom of the box were many 
pieces of gold. 

“ I wonder how much money there 
is here, anyway ! I ’ll ask grandma ; I 
must n’t stop to count it now,” she said. 
And she began carefully putting it back 
into the box. 

“ Twenty dollars and twenty dollars 
are forty, and ten are fifty — ” she counted 
the gold-pieces. “ Oh, how fast it adds 
up ! And fifty are a hundred ! I ’m 
going to pretend it ’s all mine to spend 
as I please.” 

And by the time she had put the 
money back into the box and covered it 
over with buttons, her busy little mind 
had spent it all many times over. 

Grandma was sound asleep in her chair. 
She had dropped asleep before Abbie had 
been upstairs two minutes. 

It was Tompkins who woke her. He 
jumped up into her lap, and placing his 
fore paws on her bosom said, “ Miaow ! ” 
146 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


“ What is it, dearie ? ” grandma said, 
thinking it was Abbie speaking to her, 
and she opened her eyes. 

“ Miaow ! ” said Tompkins again, in a 
satisfied tone, and curled himself down in 
her lap. Tompkins was a beautiful tiger 
cat with a white star on his forehead. He 
generally slept in grandma’s lap when 
Abbie was not sitting there. 

Grandma thought she had only been 
asleep a few minutes, and did not know, 
when Abbie came into the room, that 'she 
had been upstairs over an hour. 

“ I could n’t find the green box, 
grandma. There was a brown paste- 
board box and a white one, but the only 
green one I found was a round tin box 
with the buttons and the money in 
it.” 

“ I hope you did n’t touch that box, 
Abbie ! ” Grandma sat straight in her 
chair and looked at Abbie anxiously. 

“Yes, grandma, I did; I looked at it; 
i47 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


I — ” she hesitated, frightened by the 
look in grandma's eyes. 

“ You’re a meddlesome matty ! ” said 
grandma, in a cross high-pitched tone. 
She stood up, tumbling Tompkins 
roughly from her lap. “ You ’re a 
naughty meddlesome child — ” she be- 
gan again, in a still higher tone. Then 
she stopped, and pressing her handker- 
chief over her mouth, sank back into 
her chair. 

Abbie did not dare raise her head. 

Tompkins rubbed against her and 
purred loudly, asking for attention. 

After a long silence she raised her eyes 
and looked at grandma. 

Grandma still held her handkerchief 
tightly over her mouth ; she was tap- 
ping her foot briskly on the floor. 

“ I ’m sorry I looked in that box, 
grandma,” Abbie said softly. 

Grandma shook her head without look- 
ing toward her. 


148 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


“ I just looked in and saw it was but- 
tons. I thought it was all buttons. I 
did n’t know you ’d care ! ” 

Still grandma shook her head and said 
nothing. Abbie burst into tears. 

After a while she peeped under the 
crook of her arm. Grandma’s flushed 
face showed she was still very angry, but 
she had stopped tapping her foot on the 
floor, and had taken her handkerchief 
away from her mouth. 

Tompkins stood in a streak of sun- 
shine that fell across the floor from the 
window, and looked from Abbie to 
grandma with serious green eyes. 

Presently grandma got up and walked 
across the room to the stair door. 

She was quite lame and walked with a 
cane. 

At the door she turned, and Abbie saw 
her move her lips as though she were 
going to speak ; but she shook her head 
and went out without a word. Tompkins 
149 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


miaowed dismally, and crept out into the 
yard. Abbie threw herself down on the 
lounge, still crying. It seemed as though 
the end of all things had come if grandma 
could be so angry. Some way she could 
not be sorry that she had looked at the 
buttons and the money ; but, oh, it was 
terrible to have grandma think she was so 
naughty. 

“ That ’s the way she used to speak to 
papa, I suppose/’ Abbie said to herself, 
and she was thinking other very disagree- 
able thoughts when she heard grandma 
calling her from the head of the stairs. 

“ Where did you put that button- 
box ? ” asked grandma, as she went up 
the stairs. 

“Why, I put it right up there on the 
shelf where I found it,” said Abbie. 

“Which shelf? It isn’t here. If 
you ’d put it here, it would be here,” said 
grandma. 

“ Oh, grandma, I did put it there ! ” 
* 5 ° 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


Abbie ran across the room. “ It was 
right here between these two boxes, and 
that ’s where I put it ! ” 

Just then they heard a loud noise. It 
sounded as though some object had fallen 
from the shelf before them to the floor, 
though they saw nothing fall. 

“ What was that, grandma ? ” * 

“ I suppose it ’s the button-box, ,, said 
grandma. “ Go into your room and 
bring a candle.” 

Abbie ran across the hall to her room, 
and soon came back with a lighted candle. 

Grandma pushed aside the boxes, and 
there was a great break in the plastering 
and laths of the wall. 

c< I suppose the button-box was out of 
sight behind these boxes, and I knocked 
it through that hole, poking around in the 
dark,” said grandma. 

“ How shall we ever get it out ? ” ex- 
claimed Abbie, standing on tiptoe to 
look at the hole. 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ We can’t get it out unless the plaster- 
ing is torn away down where it has fallen. 
I guess it won’t do any hurt for it to rest 
where it is for awhile, anyway ; it ’s made 
contention enough. I ’ve always been in- 
tending to have this place boarded up ; 
no knowing how many other things have 
gone down there.” 

“ Could n’t papa get them out when he 
comes, grandma ? ” 

“Yes, I suppose he can.” Grandma 
put the candle on the shelf. “ I want to 
beg your pardon, Abbie, for speaking to 
you as I did downstairs,” she said. Her 
voice was very tender and gentle. 

“ Oh, grandma, I ought n’t to take your 
things without asking you, I know.” 

“ Yes, you had, if you want to. Any- 
thing that’s mine is yours. What did 
you think I came upstairs for ? ” 

“ I don’t know.” Abbie threw her 
arms around grandma’s waist, and looked 
up into her face. 

I S 2 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


“ I came up to get that button-box, and 
bring it downstairs and give it to you.” 

“ Grandma ! Why, I don’t want you 
to give it to me ! ” 

“Well, it’s yours, if your father can 
get it out. Don’t ever say button-box to 
me again.” 

They were downstairs, and Abbie was 
sitting in grandma’s lap being cuddled 
and rocked, when she suddenly remem- 
bered the green box that she had been 
sent upstairs to find. 

“ What is in the green box tied with 
white ribbons, grandma ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, I ’ll look that box up to- 
morrow. The clothes your father wore 
when he was a baby are in it. Some day 
when you are cutting feathers for your 
pillows I ’ll tell you about when your 
father was a little boy, and just how he 
came to run away as he did. It will be a 
lesson to you, Abbie. Don’t ever think 
you have the privilege of dictating to 
*53 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


any one, not even a child. God gives us 
the right to follow out our own lives in 
freedom. That ’s what I thought I ’d 
learned sitting here alone all those years 
before you came, but I almost forgot it 
to-day.” 

Abbie kissed grandma three times. 
“No, you didn’t, grandma; I’m sure 
you did n’t forget ! I ’ll always ask if I 
can take things after this. I put on that 
funny green silk dress, too. Did you 
ever wear that ? ” 

“No; my sister Kate wore that at a 
kind of an opera they gave here once. 
That’ll make another story I ’ll tell you 
when you are cutting feathers.” 

“ Oh, I wish I could hear about it 
now. Do you mind if I dress up in it, 
grandma ? ” 

“No, you can dress up in anything you 
want to. That closet is full of queer old 
things.” 

“ Won’t we have fun ! I ’ll dress up 
J54 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


and play I ’m different people, and come 
down and visit you.” 

“ All right ; and now you better run 
and play, and I ’ll try and get a little 
nap. You can cover me up on the 
lounge.” 

When she had made grandma comfort- 
able with pillows and shawls on the lounge, 
Abbie ran out into the yard. It was a 
lovely old-fashioned yard, full of flowers 
and shrubs, and long uncut grasses and 
clovers. 

The house was almost covered with 
running rose-bushes, and a greengage 
plum-tree grew against the southern wall. 

The dark closet was on the south side 
of the house. 

Into the plum-tree Abbie climbed, with 
the help of a step-ladder, and began ex- 
amining the wall and wondering where 
the button-box had lodged. 

The house was very old. Some of the 
clapboards had been loosened by the 
x 55 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


pressure of the growing limbs of the 
plum-tree. There were two boards so 
loose that Abbie could easily have torn 
them off with one hand. 

She raised one of them and looked 
under, but all she could see was plaster 
and worm-eaten scantling, and cobwebs. 

Then she raised the other board, and 
there, just out of reach above her head, 
was the green tin button-box, held in 
place by a leaning timber. 

Abbie gave a little scream of joy. 

If she could only get it and carry it 
in to grandma, how glad she would be ! 

She climbed down and ran to the barn 
and found the long ladder, and after great 
difficulty succeeded in leaning it up against 
the side of the house just over the place 
where the button-box rested. Then she 
ran back to the barn for the hammer and 
a chisel. A clapboard had to be loosened, 
but the old nails were rusty and soon 
gave way. Abbie reached in, and without 
* 5 ^ 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


the least trouble drew out the button-box. 
There was a big dent in one side, but the 
little catch was just as she had fastened it, 
so all was safe inside. 

Grandma was getting supper when 
Abbie ran into the kitchen with the 
button-box held above her head. 

“ See, grandma, I got it out all my- 
self.” 

Grandma just glanced toward her, and 
then turned away. 

“ Well, do what you please with it ; it ’s 
yours,” she said shortly. 

It was several days before Abbie dared 
speak of the button-box again. 

But one evening when grandma was in 
an especially good humor Abbie asked the 
question that had been in her mind since 
she had first found the box in the dark 
closet. 

cc What did you save the money in the 
green button-box for, grandma ? ” 

“ I saved it to send to the heathen, 
*57 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


but I guess they behave about as well as 
I do, according to their light.” 

It was a long, long time before Abbie 
felt that she had any right to that money. 
She put the box back in the dark closet 
where she had found it, and told grandma 
that she would never spend a cent of it. 

But when she was sixteen Abbie began 
to long to go away to school. She felt 
that she had learned all she could in the 
country school where she had been going. 

One rainy day she was sitting by the 
window, sewing and thinking deeply ; 
grandma startled her by saying, — 

“ Abbie, when did you last count the 
money in the green button-box ? ” 

“ I ’ve never counted it since the 
day I found it, grandma. That’s your 
money ; it is n’t mine.” 

“ Well, I must say you ’re about as set 
in your way as I am in mine ! ” exclaimed 
grandma, laughing. “ I Ve been adding 
a little to it all along, so there’s quite a 


THE GREEN TIN BUTTON-BOX 


sum. You ought to be planning to go 
away to school. You ’re too bright a 
girl, Abbie, to stop where you are; but 
if you don’t care anything about it, why, 
I suppose the heathen might as well have 
the money.” 

“ Oh, grandma,” cried Abbie, “ I don’t 
think of anything else, but I knew papa 
could n’t afford to send me, and I did n’t 
suppose you could.” 

And then she ran upstairs to the dark 
closet, and while the rain pattered on the 
roof, she sat down to count the contents 
of the green button-box. 

It seemed more like a fairy story than 
a reality : when the buttons on the top 
were removed, she found the money had 
all been changed to gold-pieces. Never 
mind what the exact sum was. A two- 
quart box of gold-pieces will send any 
girl through college and give her many 
pleasures besides. 


i59 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


THE LITTLE TAYLORS ALONE 

“ They’ll be out of sight in a minute. 
There ’s mother waving her handkerchief 
to us.” 

Bertha took off her blue gingham sun- 
bonnet and waved it after the wagon dis- 
appearing far down the road. 

u You can only see the end-board of 
the wagon now,” Mamie said, holding on 
to her knees, and jumping up and down 
in the road. cc There, it ’s gone.” 

Bertha turned back toward the house. 

“ Come on ; we *ve got to go in and do 
the dishes.” 

Mamie followed her, still jumping. 

The house stood in a yard full of ever- 
green trees, and with a great many cherry- 
trees all around it by the fence. The 
cherry-trees were in blossom. 


THE LITTLE TAYLORS ALONE 


There was a lane that led up past the 
house to the barn beyond, with Lom- 
bardy poplars straight and tall on either 
side. 

On one side of the house, with a low 
rail fence between, was the orchard, and 
all around on every side were fenced fields 
of grain, and then rolling, unbroken prai- 
rie as far as you could see. 

The nearest house was half a mile 
away, and was hidden from sight by a 
rise in the ground. 

cc I don’t mind it as long as it ’s day- 
light,” Mamie said, when they were in the 
house. She was kneeling in a chair be- 
fore the sink and was wiping the breakfast 
dishes for Bertha. “ But I think it will 
be kind of spooky when it comes dark.” 
She turned her head quickly. “ Don’t 
you hear somebody walking ? ” 

Bertha looked quickly, too. The door 
that stood ajar was pushed open wide, and 
a great yellow-and-black dog, with very 
161 


ii 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


sleepy eyes, came slowly in, and after turn- 
ing around several times, stretched him- 
self out on the floor in front of the door. 

Bertha laughed out, and Mamie looked 
a little ashamed. 

“ I don’t care ! it did n’t sound like 
Carlo.” 

cc If you ’re going to be scared at every 
sound all day, I ’ll wish mother had taken 
you with her.” 

“ I ’m not going to.” 

“ Well, you’ve begun well. I ’ll finish 
the dishes. You go on and feed the 
chickens.” Mamie jumped down from 
the chair and went out into the yard. 

Mr. Taylor was very proud of his 
chickens. He raised hundreds of them 
every year, and some of them were of the 
finest and most expensive breeds. He 
had gone to the city twenty miles away, 
with several dozens of the fall chickens to 
sell, and Mrs. Taylor had taken a basket 
of fresh eggs to exchange for groceries. 

162 


THE LITTLE TAYLORS ALONE 


They were going to spend the night 
with Mrs. Taylor’s sister, and drive back 
the next day in time for dinner. 

It was customary among their neigh- 
bors to go away, sometimes for two or 
three days, and leave the children to 
keep house ; but this was the first time 
that Bertha and Mamie had been left by 
themselves. 

Bertha came to the door with a dish in 
her hand, which she was wiping. 

“ Is the Brahma rooster there ? ” .she 
called above the clucking and scrambling. 

“ Yes, he’s here. He’s stealing all the 
meal from the little chickens. I can’t 
bear him. I ’d like to kick him.” 

Mamie ran in among the chickens and 
picked up the large rooster. He made 
what resistance he could, with his mouth 
full of corn-meal, but she held him 
closely. She ran into the house, put him 
down on the floor, and ran out again be- 
fore Bertha had time to speak. 

163 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


The dog raised his head and looked at 
the rooster questioningly with his sleepy 
eyes, and then lay down again. 

The rooster gave a final swallow, 
turned very red in the face, closed his 
eyes for a moment, and then quietly be- 
gan picking up the crumbs on the floor. 

He had found himself in that room 
a good many times before, and often by 
his own choice, for, besides being the 
prize rooster of the farm, he was very 
tame and a great pet. 

Bertha wiped the dishpan and hung it 
up ; then she washed her hands. She 
took the two sun-bonnets from the chair, 
where Mamie and she had left them when 
they came in ; and driving the rooster and 
the sleepy dog before her, she went out 
and shut the door and locked it. 

Mamie sat on a large stone, swinging 
her feet and singing. She was still throw- 
ing handfuls of corn-meal to the chickens 
flocking around her. 

164 


THE LITTLE TAYLORS ALONE 


“ Come on ; here ’s your bonnet,” 
Bertha called out to her. 

Mamie dropped the empty pan from 
her lap and came over and took the 
bonnet. 

“ I was thinking, supposing a tramp or 
a peddler came along, what I ’d do.” 

They had started up the lane toward 
the barn together. 

“ I guess you ’d run like a tyke before 
he ’d even spoken to you, and I guess 
Carlo ’d drive the tramps off. If any 
come, I ’ll set him on.” 

Mamie laughed. 

“ I don’t believe he ’d wake up until 
they caught us.” 

The dog was following closely behind 
them ; his head hung down, and his long 
bushy tail dragged lifelessly behind 
him. 

“Father said Carlo wouldn’t let any 
one come near the house if he knew it,” 
Bertha said. 

165 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ We ought to keep him awake so they 
couldn’t sly up.” 

Bertha unlatched the big gate that led 
into the barnyard, and the five cows, that 
were just inside, came slowly out into the 
lane. 

Mr. Taylor had milked them before he 
went away. The little girls drove them 
to their pasture every morning. It was 
in a narrow strip of woods along the bank 
of a creek a quarter of a mile away. 

“ Mamie, look back in front of our 
gate ! ” Bertha called to her when they 
were almost to the pasture. 

A movers’ wagon, with a white canvas 
cover, had just stopped in front of their 
house. A man was getting out of the 
wagon. 

“ I locked the door. Who ever it is 
can’t get in. I did n’t see the wagon 
coming, did you ? Come on, let ’s run. 
They can’t catch up to us before we get 
into the pasture ; then we can hide in 
166 


THE LITTLE TAYLORS ALONE 


the woods until they’ve passed,” Bertha 
said. She set the dog on the cows, and 
they started on a run down the road, and 
the two little girls followed them as fast 
as they could go. 

“ I ’m not afraid ; but if we get into 
the woods they can’t see us,” Bertha 
panted. “You keep the cows up, and 
I ’ll run and take down the bars.” 

Mamie followed, and the five excited 
cows jumped the lowest bar and ran off 
in different directions around the pasture. 

The dog barked and ran from one to 
the other, and back to the little girls. 

It was late in the afternoon, and Bertha 
and Mamie were very hungry. 

The movers* wagon had stopped in 
front of their house in the morning, and 
there it still stayed. They had driven out 
to one side of the road and unhitched the 
horses, and had built a camp-fire. 

“Well, we can’t stay here forever. 

167 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


We Ve got to go home some time,” 
Bertha said at last. “ I ’m starving to 
death.” 

“Well, I’d rather starve to death than 
be run off with by movers,” Mamie said, 
beginning to cry. 

“ There ’s all that nice cold meat in 
the cupboard, and bread and butter and 
radishes. I can’t stand it. I don’t be- 
lieve they ’ll pay any attention to us, 
anyway. I ’m going. You can just sit 
there and cry, if you want to, Mamie 
Taylor.” 

Bertha started off across the pasture ; 
and Mamie, after a minute, got up and 
followed her slowly. They were a long 
time in getting back to the house. 
Bertha’s bravery grew less as they got 
nearer. If there was a woman, she was 
out of sight under the canvas cover of the 
wagon. The little girls passed the wagon 
with hanging heads and their hearts beat- 
ing wildly. They had seen the man 
168 


THE LITTLE TAYLORS ALONE 


plainly enough to know that he looked 
rough and unpleasant. Carlo, following 
closely at their heels, growled uneasily. 

As they were going through the gate, 
the man called to them. 

“ Halloo ! so you thought you ’d come 
back ? You need n’t be scared of me ; 
I ’m not going to bite you, or run off with 
you either, as I know of. Come here and 
see what you think of my baby.” 

They looked back then. The man 
was sitting cross-legged on the ground, 
smoking. He had the baby lying across 
his knees wrapped in an old shawl. 

u I saw you a-clipping it into the 
woods when you saw us come up, — 
dogs and cows and all of you, running 
like we was wild Injuns.” He laughed 
loudly. 

Mamie pointed toward the bundle on 
his knee. 

“ Is that your baby ? ” 

“That’s him. Come over an’ have a 
169 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


look at him. He ain’t real chipper to- 
day ; no more’s his ma. It’s their day 
for chills.” 

Mamie and Bertha went over and 
looked at the baby. Its little face was all 
that was visible above the old shawl, and 
it was very red and burning with fever, 
but it opened its little mouth in a wide 
smile when it saw the children’s faces. 
The father laughed out. 

u He ’s the j oiliest little customer you 
ever see when he’s himself. He’d like 
to get up and play with you now, if he 
had the strength in him.” 

“ Where ’s his mother ? ” Bertha asked. 
“ She ’s in there,” the man answered, 
pointing toward the wagon. cc The 
fever’s took her bad to-day, too. That’s 
why we ain’t a-moving on.” 

“ Come, let ’s go in, Mamie,” Bertha 
said, drawing her little sister away. 

cc I ’m not a mite afraid of them now, 
are you ? ” Mamie whispered. 

170 


THE LITTLE TAYLORS ALONE 


“ No ; I ’d just as soon they ’d be there 
as not.” 

“ Did n’t that poor little baby laugh 
funny ? ” 

“ I ’m going to take it some new milk 
to-night, when Mr. Barnes’ boy comes 
to milk. I don’t believe mother ’ll care,” 
Bertha answered. 

They felt the movers a sort of protec- 
tion as it began to grow dark. 

u I ’ve thought of something,” Bertha 
said. They were sitting out on the back 
door-step. The stars had come out, and 
the air was sweet with the cherry blos- 
soms. “It’ll be a splendid surprise, for 
mother won’t think we can.” 

“ Think we can what ? ” Mamie asked. 

“ Get up a chicken dinner for father 
and mother, and have it all ready when 
they get home. I know I can cook it. 
We can catch the chicken now, and get 
the mover-man to kill it for us, and we ’ll 
pick it and get it ready, and to-morrow 
171 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


we can get all the vegetables ready and 
bake it. It will taste awful good to them 
after their long ride.” 

Mamie clapped her hands and jumped 
up. 

“ Come on ; let ’s go and get the 
chicken now ! ” 

They went out across the lane to the 
large henhouse on the other side. The 
door was open. The chickens all sat 
with their yellow toes fastened securely 
about the pole roost, and their heads 
tucked ridiculously far under their right 
wings. 

“ You stand out here, and I ’ll go in 
and get one,” Bertha whispered. 

She crept in under the sleeping fowls, 
that roused and stretched their necks 
down toward her with inquiring cluck- 
ings. 

Bertha reached up her hand in the 
darkness and grabbed at the feet of one 
of the chickens, and pulled him off the 
172 


THE LITTLE TAYLORS ALONE 


roost. There was a wild beating of 
wings and cackling, and the whole roost 
was roused and noisy. 

“ Have you got him ? ” Mamie whis- 
pered. 

“ Yes ; come on. I ’m going to put 
him in a coop, and go and tell the mover- 
man, and then I ’m going into the house 
and shut the door and put my fingers 
in my ears,” Bertha said. 

The man offered to dress the chicken 
for them also, if they would give him 
some more milk for his baby in the 
morning. He hung it up in the back 
shed when he had finished it, so the little 
girls did not see it again until morn- 
ing, when Bertha took it down to wash 
it before putting it in the oven to 
bake. 

Mamie was peeling potatoes at the 
sink when Bertha came into the kitchen 
with the chicken. She turned to ask her 
some question, and then cried out, — 

J 7 3 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ Why, Bertha Taylor, you’re white as 
a ghost.” 

Bertha held the chicken out before 
her. 

“It’s the Brahma rooster we’ve 
killed.” 

“ It ain’t.” 

“Yes, it is.” Bertha began to cry. 
“ See, here ’s the little knobs on his feet 
where he froze them last winter.” 

Mamie went over and looked at the 
knobs, and then began to cry, too. 

“ Why, but he don’t roost there, Bertha. 
He roosts in the poplar-tree back of the 
smoke-house.” 

“ Well, he did n’t roost there last night, 
’cause here ’s the knobs.” 

“Are you going to cook him, Bertha?” 

“We might as well. But they won’t 
enjoy their dinner. It’s all spoilt.” 

Some one rapped on the open door. 
The man from the movers’ wagon stood 
there with his baby on his arm. 

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THE LITTLE TAYLORS ALONE 


“Well, we're going to start along. 
We came to tell you good-bye. Why, 
what ’s happened to you ? ” 

Bertha explained it to him, and the 
man looked very serious and sympathetic 
as he walked away. To kill a rooster 
that had cost five dollars was no small 
matter in his mind, either. “ Come out 
and see us off,” he called to them. 

Bertha put the chicken down, and they 
went out to the wagon. Mamie held the 
baby while the man hitched the horses to 
the wagon. He was very pale and weak, 
but as jolly and happy as any baby they 
had ever seen. 

The mother sat on the front seat. She 
was very pale, too, and very thin. She 
had on a green gingham sun-bonnet that 
hung limply around her face. 

At last, the father took the baby, gave 
it to its mother, and then sprang into the 
wagon himself, and after saying good-bye 
again, drove slowly away. 

I 75 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


It was a long and unhappy morning 
to the little girls. At one o’clock the 
dinner was waiting. It looked very good 
and tempting. There were, besides the 
chicken, which was nicely baked, mashed 
potatoes and squash and beets. The table 
was set, and everything was ready. 

Bertha had said that, unless they were 
asked, they had better not tell their mother 
and father what had happened until after 
they had eaten their dinner. 

“ I can’t eat a mouthful myself, I 
know, but perhaps they won’t notice.” 

“ It smells awful good. I believe I 
can eat as much as ever,” Mamie said. 

At last the wagon turned into the lane, 
and Bertha and Mamie stood in the door 
with sober little faces to receive their 
father and mother. 

“Well, here we are,” their father called 
out to them. “I hope everything’s all 
right. Did Barnes’s boy come up to do 
the chores ? ” 


176 


THE LITTLE TAYLORS ALONE 


“Yes, he came,” Bertha answered, 
going out toward the wagon. 

“ You were n’t frightened, were you ? ” 
Mrs. Taylor asked. 

“We were frightened with some movers 
who camped out in front, when we first 
saw them, but they were real nice. They 
had a baby, and the man let me hold it,” 
Mamie said, coming out too. 

“ Did n’t forget to feed the chickens, 
did you ? ” Mr. Taylor asked. 

“ No, sir,” Bertha answered. She 
felt it was her duty to tell him then 
what had happened, but she could not 
speak. 

“ Kept an eye on the Brahma rooster, 
did n’t you ? ” Mr. Taylor asked. 

Mrs. Taylor had got out of the wagon 
and was going toward the house. 

Neither of the little girls answered. 

“ I don’t see him anywhere. He ’s 
usually around under foot. Seen him 
this morning, haven’t you?” 

177 


12 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ No,” Mamie faltered; and then 
Bertha cried out, — 

“ Oh, father, we killed him ! We didn’t 
know it was the Brahma. We thought 
we ’d get up a chicken dinner to surprise 
you, and I asked the mover-man to kill a 
chicken for us. It was dark. I thought 
the Brahma roosted in the poplar-tree.” 

Mr. Taylor turned, and stood, with the 
reins in his hand, looking at her. Mrs. 
Taylor had stopped at the door. 

“Well, if I can’t trust you two any 
further than that, I think it’s a great 
note. I don’t want any chicken dinner 
cooked by such careless girls.” 

He turned away and went up toward 
the barn with the horses. 

The little girls followed their mother 
into the house, crying silently. 

“ What a careless thing to do ! I don’t 
see how you could make such a mistake, 
even if it was dark. That rooster ’s been 
no end of trouble and expense to your 
178 


THE LITTLE TAYLORS ALONE 


father. But I guess he ’ll eat some dinner. 
It smells pretty good,” Mrs. Taylor said, 
as they went into the house. 

Mr. Taylor did not come in until they 
were nearly done eating. He washed 
himself at the sink, and sat down gloom- 
ily at the table. Neither of the little 
girls dared to look at him, and the meal 
ended uncomfortably. 

Mr. Taylor shoved back his chair from 
the table to get up. No one had spoken, 
and the room was very still. Suddenly, 
in the stillness, Mamie giggled. Her 
father looked at her, frowning. She 
pointed toward the open door, and there, 
his valuable head held high, was the 
Brahma rooster, standing on one foot and 
eying them, first with one bright eye, and 
then with the other. 

Every one laughed, and the next day 
they had the almost untouched roast 
chicken before them made into one of 
the best chicken-pies you ever tasted. 

179 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


AN INTERCESSION OF NATURE 

“ Look out there, Stell ! Keep the 
horses’ heads over the markings. I 
guess you better let me drive.” 

Mr. Bradford was planting corn. He 
sat down on the front seat of the 
“ planter,” working the handle, and Stella 
was driving. 

On one side of the field, at the foot of 
a steep bank, was the river, and beyond 
that a broad belt of woods. The corn- 
field had once been a wood, and there 
were still many stumps charred with fire 
and half uprooted. 

Stella’s brother, De Witt Bradford, was 
on the side of the field nearest the river, 
riding the corn-marker. He wore his 
straw hat pulled down over his forehead, 
and kept his eyes steadily on an imaginary 
line ahead. 

180 


AN INTERCESSION OF NATURE 


The meadow-larks on the grassy slope 
that led up to the house sang loudly. 
The air was full of the odor of the newly 
turned earth and of the sweet fragrance of 
wild crab-apple blossoms growing on a 
gnarled little cluster of trees in one cor- 
ner of the field. 

“ Another year I ’ll have a self-mark- 
ing planter. It’s clear out of date, work- 
ing this way,” Mr. Bradford said, when 
they had passed a stump in safety. 
“ Then De Witt and I can do the plant- 
ing without your help.” 

“ I ’d just as soon help as not,” said 
Stella. “ Only it makes De Witt cross 
to see me here. He’s so particular about 
the marking ! He wants the field to look 
like a waffle-iron when it’s done. He 
says he ’s going to have every stump 
out of here before another corn-planting. 
What a brag he is ! He thinks he runs 
this ranch.” 

Mr. Bradford laughed. “ I thought it 
181 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


wa9 generally understood that Mamie run 
it,” he said. 

Over in the edge of the tall weeds and 
grasses on the river-bank a little girl in 
a pink sun-bonnet moved back and forth. 
Now and then she called to her brother 
on the marker. Two or three times she 
screamed so persistently that he had 
stopped to answer her. 

“ I ’m making a playhouse, De Witt ! ” 
she called. 

“ Yes, I hear you.” 

“ I ’m cutting a hall through the 
weeds with your jack-knife. Then I ’m 
going to make a square place for a 
parlor.” 

“ Well, don’t tumble out of your parlor 
into the river.” 

“ De Witt will listen to her foolishness 
when he would n’t to anybody else,” Mr. 
Bradford said, looking across the field at 
the little girl. 

They reached the end of the row. 

182 


AN INTERCESSION OF NATURE 


Stella exchanged seats with her father, 
and they started back across the field. 

“ Father/’ she said abruptly, “ may I 
go?” 

“ Go where ? ” 

“ You know, father. I asked you 
yesterday.” 

“ Have you said anything to De Witt 
about it ? ” Mr. Bradford asked. 

“ Yes. He says I might as well keep 
still. He says I can’t go, for I can’t be 
spared.” 

“Well, I don’t see how you can, Stell. 
I don’t see how you ever thought you 
could go. Did you ask mother ? ” 

“ Yes ; she says the same as you and 
De Witt.” 

“ Well, what are you coming to me for, 
then ? You think I ’m going to let you 
do what your mother says you can’t ? 
De Witt never thought he needed more 
education than he could get at the district 
school.” 

183 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 

He does n’t care whether he knows 
anything or not, so long ’s he can boss 
somebody. I believe ma’d let me go 
if it was n’t for De Witt.” 

Her father went on with his work, pay- 
ing no more attention to Stella. The 
tears started to the girl’s eyes, and she 
pressed her lips together and was silent. 

She was sixteen years old. The day 
before had been her birthday. One pres- 
ent had been given her ; she had found 
it in her shoe in the morning. It was a 
small pincushion that Mamie had made 
for her out of a piece of green silk. 

It had helped her to ask the question 
she had for a long time tried to gain 
courage to ask, for after breakfast she 
had followed De Witt to the barn, and 
stood in the door while he went in among 
the horses. 

“ It is my birthday, you know, De 
Witt,” she said. “ I want you to do 
something for me. Will you ? ” 

184 
















































































AN INTERCESSION OF NATURE 


“Well, fire away; what is it? You 
want another green silk pincushion ? ” 

“ Don’t laugh at Mamie about her pres- 
ent. You never thought to give me 
anything.” 

“ Well, what do you want ? ” 

“ I want to go to Fort Scott to school, 
De Witt, the first of September. I want 
father to pay me for what I do this sum- 
mer, and let me have the money to go 
with. He’s always saying I do as much 
as any man he could hire, and I do, too. 
I want you to ask him to let me go, 
De Witt.” 

There was a prolonged whistle from 
within the barn. 

“ Well, I ’m blessed ! What next ? ” 

“You will ask him to let me go, won’t 
you, De Witt ? ” 

“ No.” 

“ Why not ? ” 

“ ’Cause you can’t go. You ’re needed 
here more ’n you need to go to school. 

185 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


What ’d ma do, I ’d like to know, — over- 
worked as she is now ? ” 

“ She can get Mrs. Patterson to come 
and wash and iron for her.” 

“Well, I guess she wants you more ’n 
she does Mrs. Patterson. Go along 
away ! ” 

“Well, you’ll see. I ’m going. I ’ll 
ask for myself.” 

She went on to the well in the barn- 
yard, where her father was pumping water 
for half a dozen cows that were crowding 
about the trough. When she had put 
the question to him, as she had to De 
Witt, he ceased pumping, and looked 
at her gravely for a moment. Then he 
said, — 

“ Why, I don’t know. I ’ll see what 
your ma and De Witt say, Stell,” and she 
had gone to her hard day’s work very 
hopeful. 

Now, seated on the corn-planter with 
her father, she went back and forth across 
18 6 


AN INTERCESSION OF NATURE 


the field several times in silence. She 
had broached the matter, and felt that she 
had failed utterly. Her heart ached with 
disappointment, and the hot tears burned 
her eyes. 

She thought of her mother, worn with 
too many cares, and of the extra work and 
expense her going to school meant to her 
father, and blamed herself for wishing 
to go. 

A flock of blackbirds flew over the 
field with noisy chattering. Mr. Brad- 
ford looked up. 

“ They 're getting ready for us, Stell, ,, 
he said, in his usual gentle tone. 

“ Father, have I got to give up going ? ” 

“ I don’t see how you could go this year, 
anyway. Where is it you want to go ? ” 

“ To the Normal in Fort Scott.” 

“ Why, you don’t know enough to 
get into that school ! That ’s a school 
for teachers. You could n’t get in there.” 

“ Oh, father ! Did n’t you see the ex- 
187 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


amination questions that were printed in 
the ‘ Gazette ’ ? I could answer those, 
almost every one. I looked up the 
answers, and they were almost all right. 
I ’ve tried it two or three times. ,, 

Mr. Bradford looked down at her. 

“ Is that so, Stell ? ” His face was full 
of surprise and pride. 

“Yes, sir; I’m just sure I could get 
in.” 

Mr. Bradford looked across the field, 
and was silent for some time. 

“You can’t leave home this year. 
Perhaps you could a year from this 
September. We’ll see. I’m not against 
your going. I suppose you ’re all bound 
to leave, soon or later. It’s the way 
things go. There ain’t any two of my 
father’s family in the same State to-day, 
and there used to be eleven of us at home 
at one time.” 

That night when Mamie looked for 
Stella to go upstairs with her to bed, as 
188 


AN INTERCESSION OF NATURE 


usual, the child found nothing of her sis- 
ter in the house. She ran out into the 
yard at the back of the house. 

cc Stell ! Come in to bed ! Stell ! ” 

Out by the barn there was a large 
straw-stack. The cattle all winter had 
burrowed and eaten from it, and it was in 
a flattened, torn condition. 

It was a bright moonlight night. Just 
after she called, Mamie saw Stella sitting 
on the top of the stack’, her hands clasped 
about her knees and her head turned 
away. 

cc Did you hear, Stell ? I ’ve got to go 
to bed. What are you up there for ? ” 
She ran out to the foot of the stack. 
cc Come on ! ” 

“ Oh, Mamie, can’t you go to bed alone 
just once ? ” 

“No, I want you to come too.” 

The little girl scrambled up the side of 
the stack. “ Is n’t it nice out here in the 
moonlight ? I ’m going to slide off.” 

189 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


She gathered her dress about her, pre- 
paratory for the slide. 

“Why, Stell Bradford, what are you 
crying for ? ” 

She dropped down by her sister’s side, 
and put her arms around her neck. 
“ What ’s the matter, Stell ? ” 

“ Because I ’ve got to grow up an idiot, 
and not know anything, and no one cares 
if I do ! ” 

She pushed the little arms from her 
neck, and sank down in the straw. “ It’s 
just work, work forever, and never know 
anything ! ” 

Mamie stood over her. “ Is it ’cause 
you want to go to Fort Scott to school ? ” 
she asked. 

“ Yes, it is.” 

“Well, I ’ll coax for you, Stell ! ” 

The little girl crept over in the straw 
and lay down by her sister, putting an 
arm over her. 

“ I ’ve promised father not to say any- 


AN INTERCESSION OF NATURE 


thing more about it, and you must n’t 
either, Mamie,” said Stella. “ He ’d let 
me go if he could. He says if the crop 
is good this year, he ’ll think about it, but 
I counted on it so — I thought if I 
worked just like a slave — ” 

Stella’s head went down into the 
straw again. Mamie began to cry in 
sympathy. 

“ There, don’t you cry, pettie. I ’ll 
stop,” Stella said, sitting up and taking 
her little sister’s head in her lap. “ Let ’s 
go in and go to bed. There! Come on, 
let ’s slide off the stack together ! ” 

Hand in hand, they slid off, and climb- 
ing up slid off again. When they went 
into the house there were no traces of 
tears on either girl’s face. Stella followed 
her little sister up the stairs, with the 
weight of her disappointment settling 
back on her heart again ; and while 
Mamie slept, she lay awake for a long 
time, crying rebelliously. 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


The corn in the bottom-land, along 
the river, was almost as high as Mamie’s 
waist. It was strong and well rooted in 
the rich earth, and promised a bountiful 
harvest. 

It was Sunday, and Mr. Bradford was 
walking through the corn-field with 
Mamie and Stella. 

“ I never saw corn look any better than 
this,” Mr. Bradford said. “ Judging by 
the start it ’s got, the ears ’ll hang so high 
that we can ride through on horseback and 
pick ’em. This land’s pure gold for rich- 
ness. If nothing happens, I ’ll get the 
last payment made on the farm this fall, 
and after that we won’t be so scrimped for 
money, I hope.” 

“ And Stella can go to Fort Scott to 
school,” Mamie said, slipping her hand 
into her father’s. 

“ She can go a year from this fall if she 
can wait till then,” Mr. Bradford said, 
holding the little hand tightly in his own. 

192 


AN INTERCESSION OF NATURE 


(< We can’t let her go before then ; there’s 
no use thinking of it. I hope you won’t 
want to go off and leave your poor old 
father without any girl, pettie.” 

“ I want to go to school when I ’m big 
enough. I want to know just everything 
I can about everything ; so does Stell.” 

“ You two take after your Grand- 
mother Bradford about books and know- 
ing things. Why, she ’d sit down to 
read before she ’d done up her morning’s 
work. It used to drive my father half- 
crazy to see her. Everything kicking 
around, and us children doing what we 
liked ! When a neighbor was sick or 
there was trouble anywhere, she always 
was the one that knew just what was to 
be done, though. It was a saying round 
where we lived that Mrs. Bradford only 
put down her book to do somebody a 
good turn.” 

Mamie had heard her father say all this 
many times before. She pulled his sleeve. 
*3 193 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ Does n’t Stell look pretty in that 
dress, father ? ” 

Her sister was at a little distance ahead 
of them, walking through the corn rows. 
She was a tall girl, strong and well formed, 
She wore a light calico dress with a blue 
spray running over it, and a straight- 
rimmed sundown hat, with a band of 
blue ribbon. 

Her light hair was braided, and hung 
down her back. Her eyes were brown 
and beautiful, and there was a fairness 
and transparency to her complexion that 
constant outdoor work had not injured. 
Her cheeks were round and rosy. 

“ She ’s a pretty fair specimen of a girl, 
I call her,” Mr. Bradford said, looking at 
his elder daughter with pride. “ What 
are you looking at, Stell ? ” he called 
to her. 

cc Why, I was looking at those clouds. 
Just see them rolling up ! Where did 
they come from all of a sudden ? ” 

194 


AN INTERCESSION OF NATURE 


“ Well, sure enough ! We better hurry 
and get to the house, or we 'll get a 
wetting.” 

Rain was falling heavily when they 
reached the fence that separated the 
meadow-land from the corn-field, and all 
the sky was black with clouds. They 
came to the house drenched to the skin. 

The rain poured ceaselessly all the 
afternoon and night, and next morning it 
was still coming in torrents. Mr. Brad- 
ford and De Witt went out into the 
storm, and toward noon the father came 
in, looking very much distressed. 

“The river is bank-full,” he said; “if 
the rain keeps on two hours longer, the 
corn in the bottom-land will be gone. 
The oats are all beaten flat.” 

“ If the river does overflow,” said De 
Witt, following his father up to the door, 
“ we ’re broke for this year, sure.” 

Stella watched the river uneasily. By 
and by she called, — 
i95 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ It ’s over ! Oh, father, will the corn 
all be torn out by the roots ? ” 

Mrs. Bradford and Mamie stood by 
her ; but Mr. Bradford covered his face 
with his hands, and groaned, and did not 
speak. 

In half an hour the whole field was 
flooded. Along the bank the corn was 
out of sight, and the water rushed furi- 
ously ; but over the greater part of the 
field the green leaves were still showing 
above the slow-moving yellow water. 

At dusk the rain had stopped falling, 
and the water was going down. 

Stella put on a waterproof and went 
down across the meadow to the edge of 
corn-field. She knew what the loss would 
mean to her. She would have to give up 
going away to school altogether ; but she 
was frightened by her fathers distress, 
and her thought was chiefly for him. 

He had not eaten anything all day, 
and was so full of despair that not even 
196 


AN INTERCESSION OF NATURE 


Mamie’s arms around his neck, and her 
coaxing and kisses, had any effect to 
make him appear less unhappy. 

“ Last year it was no rain and chinch- 
bugs, and this year we ’re flooded. 
Everything ’s gone. I don’t see what ’s 
to keep us from starving. It ’s what 
comes of having almost your whole crop 
on bottom-land. But I suppose if it 
was n’t this, it ’d be something else ! ” 

Stella stood looking over the corn-field 
with aching heart and eyes full of tears. 
The corn lay flat along the ground. On 
the greater part of the field the strong 
young roots still clung to the earth, but 
half exposed. 

All at once her face changed. She 
turned and ran back to the house. 
“ Father!” she cried, as she came in, 
“ I believe I know a way to save the 
corn ! ” 

He raised his head and looked at her, 
his eyes dull and heavy. 

i97 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ If we can find enough men, and get 
the roots all covered up before the sun 
comes out, I believe it will live ! ” 

“ Why, Stell, I supposed the corn was 
all swept away.” 

“ No, it isn’t! I’ve been down to 
look at it. There’s more than half 'of it 
still there. Don’t you think it would 
live ? ” 

Life and interest came slowly back into 
Mr. Bradford’s face. “Well, we’ll try 
it. I don’t know how it ’ll work, but it 
won’t do any hurt to try. You and De 
Witt had better each get on a horse and 
see who you can scare up to help us.” 

“ I can help, too,” Mamie said, dancing 
about. “ I can pack the mud around lots 
of stalks.” 

“Yes, you can help; and mother’ll 
have to turn out and do what she can. 
Perhaps we can save it ! ” 

Following the storm the neighbors 
had little to do, and in a few hours eight 
198 


AN INTERCESSION OF NATURE 


or ten men were at work in the field. 
More came during the evening. At mid- 
night the greater portion of the corn was 
standing ; and long before the sun came 
up the next day, all that had not been en- 
tirely swept away was in place again. 

“ I would n't be surprised if you 'd have 
the beatinest crop you ever had ! ” one of 
the neighbors said to Mr. Bradford, as 
they were finishing the last row. “ I 
heard of this being done once, back in 
Ohio, and the corn could n't be matched 
for size of ears, or number of bushels to 
the acre." 

The sun shone warmly all day, but the 
corn stood green and unwithered. 

a It’s stood the test," Mr. Bradford 
said that night at supper. “If nothing 
else happens now, it '11 live. Stell, you 
saved it ! " 

He looked across the table at his 
daughter, his eyes bright with tears. 

“When I looked at you down there 
l 99 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


to-day working like a man to help get it 
covered, and thought that the whole 
thing was your idea, I said to myself, 
‘ She ’s a smart girl, and if her mind ’s set 
on going away to get more schooling, she 
can go, and she can go this fall ! ’ ” 

“ Father ! ” Stella cried, “ I know you 
can’t afford it after all you ’ve lost. I ’ve 
given it up.” 

“Well, you’re going, whether I can 
afford it or not. I guess we ’ll pull 
through somehow.” 


200 


LITTLE METHODIST 


AN UNFORTUNATE LITTLE 
METHODIST 

<c Della is playing hide-and-seek around 
the Baptist church, mamma ! ” Gussy 
Bell’s brown eyes were as serious as the 
brown eyes of a little girl seven years 
old can be. “ I told her it was awfully 
wicked, but she would n’t come away.” 

Mrs. Bell was putting a stick of wood 
into the kitchen stove. She turned her 
warm face and looked at her little daugh- 
ter, standing in the doorway, and smiled. 

“You must keep on your sun-bonnet, 
Gussy. You are getting as black as a 
little Indian.” 

Gussy pulled the little pink sun-bon- 
net, that was dangling by its strings 
around her neck, up over her short 
brown curls. 


201 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ Must n't Della come away, mamma?” 

“ Yes, I want her to help me for a little 
while. You may run and tell her.” 

Gussy ran down the path and out of 
the gate. Across the street and a strip of 
green grass was the Baptist church. It 
was a small church, painted a dingy 
brown. Six steps led up to a wide 
wooden platform extending across the 
entire front. There was a square tower 
with a large bell, and a great many 
swallows were flying in and out of the 
belfry. 

The children were using the church 
door for a goal. Della was the last to 
“ get in free,” and she was pounding the 
door at a great rate ; and all the children 
were screaming and dancing around with 
excitement. 

“ Della Bell, mamma wants you this 
minute ! ” Gussy called, standing in the 
middle of the street. 

Della ran to the end of the platform. 


202 


LITTLE METHODIST 


“ I don't believe she said so. You’re 
just making it up.” 

“ No, honest, she told me to tell you.” 

“ Hope to die ? ” 

“ Yes, truly, surely, blurely ! ” 

This was too convincing to be disre- 
garded, and Della jumped off the platform 
and ran up to her. 

“ What does she want me for ? ” 

“ I don’t know.” 

Gussy turned and walked back with 
her. 

“You know, Della, papa said we 
mustn’t say c hope to die.’ ” 

“Well, I forgot. You needn’t stick 
your eyes out at me ; I did forget, hope 
to — there, I most went again.” 

Gussy’s father was the Methodist min- 
ister in the little town where they lived. 
He had been holding a series of revival 
meetings for children, and Gussy had 
been one of his earliest and most ear- 
nest converts. 


203 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


She had heard her father ask Della, at 
one of the meetings, if she did not want 
to experience a change of heart, as her lit- 
tle sister had done. 

But the meetings came to a close, and 
Della had shown no desire for a change. 
It was a great grief to Gussy, in spite of a 
little unconscious superiority she enjoyed. 

In hopes that Della's heart could yet 
be softened, the children were, of their 
own accord, continuing the meetings in 
an old barn that stood in an open field 
back of the parsonage. 

Gussy stood at the gate for a few min- 
utes after Della had left her, watching the 
children playing hide-and-seek. It was a 
game she dearly loved to play. 

But she was not struggling with a de- 
sire to join them in the game. She was 
trying to gain courage to go and tell them 
how wrong it was to use the door of the 
church for a goal, and ask them to go 
away. She was afraid of the boys, who 
204 


LITTLE METHODIST 


would tease her and laugh at her, so at 
last she turned and walked slowly toward 
the old barn. 

One of the little girls ran after her, and 
as she came up, put her arm around her. 

“ What are you mad at, Gussy ? I 
have n’t done anything, have I ? ” 

“ I ’m not mad. I don’t get mad any 
more.” 

cc Why don’t you come and play, then, 
and not go dumping off by yourself? ” 

“ I ’m not dumping. I was only think- 
ing, and I ’m going down to the barn.” 

“ Oh, if you ’re going to have one of 
those meetings, let me come, will you ? ” 

“We’re not going to have meeting to- 
day. I was just going by myself. You 
can come if you want to. You could n’t 
come to our meetings, because you ’re a 
Baptist. We don’t have Baptists. I 
wish you ’d be a Methodist, Dora, you ’d 
be so happy.” 

“ I ’d just as soon be one, but mamma 
205 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


would n’t let me,” Dora answered. <c I ’ll 
tell you ; I ’ll play I ’m one, if you let me 
come to the meetings.” 

“ You’d make fun.” 

“ No, I would n’t, honest Injun ! ” 

The old barn stood on the side of the 
field nearest the parsonage ; its brightly 
painted red door was open, and hung half 
unhinged. The mows were filled with 
new hay, and the air was sweet. 

The sunshine streamed in through the 
wide cracks and windows, and in a warm 
broad tract through the door. 

A great many pigeons were flying in 
and out, and twittering among the 
rafters. 

Gussy climbed up the steep ladder at 
the side of the mow, and hanging by her 
hands to a beam, dropped down in the 
soft hay. Dora followed her, screaming 
as she dropped from the beam. 

“ Let ’s play hucklety-bread and tumble- 
bug,” she said ; and, folding her dress 
206 


LITTLE METHODIST 


around her feet, she made a backward 
somersault. 

“ I feel so conserted about Della, I 
can’t play,” Gussy said, sitting quietly at 
one side. 

“ What is conserted ? ” 

cc Oh, so bad. I could just cry, she ’s 
so wicked ! ” 

“ Why, Della is n’t wicked either ; 
she ’s just as good as she can be,” said 
Dora. “ Come on, play.” 

“ If you will keep still a little minute 
and let me pray, I will ; I must pray 
about Della.” 

Gussy dropped down on her knees and 
hid her face in the hay. She prayed 
aloud, but in a very low voice. 

Dora crept up to her and listened with 
interest. All at once she broke out, — 

“ I guess our church is just as good as 
your old Methodist, and I don’t want 
you to pray for me, either. I ’m just as 
good as you are.” 


207 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Gussy raised her face ; her eyes were 
full of tears. 

“ Oh, Dora, you don’t know. They 
can never go to heaven. And Della 
teases to go to the Baptist Sunday- 
school, and she will play around the 
Baptist church. And she only says, 
‘Now I lay me’ nights, and not anything 
in the morning.” 

Gussy’s head went down in the hay, 
and she cried aloud. 

Dora began to cry, too. “ I guess my 
gran’ma went to heaven, and she was 
Baptist ! ” 

Gussy stopped crying and sat up. She 
had known Dora’s grandma and loved her. 

“Yes; but she was so good God for- 
gave her.” 

“ She read the Bible as much as your 
father does, and she prayed hours,” Dora 
sobbed. 

“ But your Bible is n’t like ours, 
Dora.” 


208 


LITTLE METHODIST 


<c It’s better ’n any old Methodist 
Bible that ever lived ! ” Dora pushed 
Gussy over on the hay. 

Gussy felt herself growing very angry. 
Before she had time to think, she sprang 
up and slapped Dora across the face. 

Dora returned the blow with interest, 
scratching her like a little tiger, and 
then ran to the ladder and quickly dis- 
appeared over the edge of the mow. 

“ Madcap Methodist, say your pray- 
ers ! ” she called back in a tantalizing 
tone, and kept repeating it until she was 
out of hearing down the street. 

This was the first time Gussy had been 
angry since the meetings had closed, and 
she was so surprised and alarmed that for 
a minute she did not know what to do. 

She had been told that she had experi- 
enced a change of heart, and she had be- 
lieved that it was impossible for her ever 
to be really angry or naughty in any way 
again. 

14 209 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Her eyes burned, and her poor little 
heart ached so terribly that for a moment 
she could hardly breathe. 

“ Oh, it is n’t changed! I ’m just as 
wicked as I was before ! ” she cried out. 
“ Oh, what will papa say when he knows 
I have n’t a new heart, after all ! ” 

She tried to pray, but her heart was too 
deeply wounded by her disappointment. 
The shame and remorse were indeed hard 
for her to endure. 

She pulled her little blue dress-skirt up 
over her head and threw herself back on 
the hay. She felt cold and weak, and 
wondered if she was going to die. She 
straightened out her limbs and held her 
breath and wished that she could die, for 
then, she thought, God would know that 
though she had been wicked again, she 
felt so badly that it had killed her. 

All at once she grew calmer and lay on 
her back watching the pigeons up in the 
rafters, and the sunshine that came in 


210 


LITTLE METHODIST 


through the cracks and fell in beams of 
red and orange across the hay. 

One of the pigeons flew down on the 
hay quite near her, and turned his head 
inquiringly from one side to the other, 
and made queer coaxing noises in his 
throat, and then flew up among the raft- 
ers again, and began chattering to the 
rest. 

After a minute they all flew, with a 
great whirring of wings, out of the barn. 

The flies on the high, dusty window 
buzzed and tumbled. Then the sun 
must have gone under a cloud, for the 
beams of sunshine pulled themselves up 
through the cracks, and the mow was 
dark and quiet. Gussy was sound asleep. 

When she woke it was beginning to 
get dark in the barn. She got up and 
climbed quickly down from the mow and 
ran toward the house. 

There was a light in the Baptist church, 
and as she went by the door she stopped 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


and looked in. Only one lamp was burn- 
ing, and the old sexton was standing 
under it, reading from a little book. He 
was smiling and nodding, and Gussy 
wondered what he could be reading that 
pleased him so much. 

She tiptoed up the steps and stood 
just inside the door, and he turned and 
saw her standing there. His smile deep- 
ened, and he beckoned for her to come in. 

Cf Is n’t this one of the little girls that 
got converted down to the Methodist 
church ? ” he asked. 

Gussy threw her hands up over her 
face and began to cry. 

“ Why, there, don’t cry,” he said 
gently, coming toward her. cc I just 
wanted to tell you that I was glad you 
did n’t wait until you were seventy years 
old, as I did, before you began to follow 
the Lord.” 

The little girl dropped down in the 
nearest seat. 


212 


LITTLE METHODIST 


<c Oh,” she sobbed, “ my heart is n't 
changed a bit, though papa and the rest 
think it is. I 'm awfully wicked and bad, 
just as I was before the meetings ! ” Her 
head went down on the arm of the seat. 
“ I ’m as bad as any old Baptist that 
ever lived ! ” 

The old man patted her head and 
smiled. 

tc You 're just having an ugly dream. 
That's what all our sins are, — just so 
many bad dreams. We're all God’s 
children. Don’t you worry over any- 
thing you’ve done. Your heart’s all 
right.” 

He walked away and began dusting the 
seats, and his lips moved as though he 
was praying. 

After a few minutes Gussy raised her 
head and looked about the church. 

“ Are there any pictures in your minis- 
ter’s Bible ? ” she asked presently. 

“ Yes, oh, yes ; go up and have a look 
213 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


at them,” the sexton answered good- 
naturedly. 

Gussy went softly up the aisle and into 
the pulpit, and, standing on tiptoe behind 
the minister's desk, opened the big Bible 
and turned over the leaves. 

“ I believe it 's exactly like our Bible. 
Why, I don't believe there 's a mite of 
difference,” she exclaimed in surprise. 
c< Do you have about the c Samuel 
Baby' and c Naaman's little maid’?” 

There was no answer. She looked over 
the pulpit. The old sexton was nowhere 
in sight. She shut the book quickly and 
ran down the aisle to the door. It was 
shut and locked ! She ran to one of the 
windows and pounded and screamed with 
all her might. 

But the old sexton was walking quietly 
away on the other side of the church. 
He had completely forgotten the little 
girl up in the pulpit. 

It was now quite dark, and the church 
214 



































LITTLE METHODIST 


seemed full of strange shadows and noises, 
and Gussy was so frightened she hardly 
dared breathe. 

She crept into one of the back seats 
and sat down. 

Her home was only a short distance 
away, — just across the street. 

It must be time for supper, and papa 
had come out of his study, and they were 
wondering why she did not come in. If 
she kept pounding on the window and 
calling, perhaps they would hear her. 

Something creaked and rattled up in the 
belfry, and Gussy quickly lay down in the 
seat and curled her feet up under her dress. 

She dared not cross the room to the 
window, and, oh, how her poor little heart 
was beating ! 

The night grew darker and darker. 
The church was very still. Then a 
cricket in a corner uttered two or three 
shrill, cheerful chirps. 

Gussy felt less lonely, and lay listening 
2I 5 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


and wishing the cricket would chirp again, 
and finally, after what seemed a long, long 
time, she fell asleep. 

The sound of ringing bells and people 
running back and forth woke her in the 
middle of the night. 

She thought there must be a fire some- 
where, and got up and ran to the window. 

But the night was very dark, and she 
could see nothing but faint lights and 
people moving about. 

She shook the window and called 
loudly, but no one heard her. 

She listened for a moment. “Why, 
that ’s our church bell ringing, I know it 
is ! ” she said aloud. 

Then all at once a happy thought came 
to her. She jumped down and ran into 
the vestibule, and, standing on a chair, 
caught hold of the bell-rope and pulled 
with all her might. 

The old sexton, who was out with the 
rest of the people of the town, search- 
216 


LITTLE METHODIST 


ing for the lost child, stopped suddenly 
when he heard the Baptist bell begin to 
ring. 

He put his hand to his head and 
looked about him in a bewildered way. 
cc I guess I ’ve taken leave of my wits,” 
he muttered. <c She ’s in the Baptist 
church ! ” he shouted, and started off in 
that direction as fast as his poor old legs 
could take him. 

Gussy’s father reached the church as 
soon as the sexton did ; and when the 
door was unlocked, the little girl jumped 
right into his arms. 

<c Oh papa, papa, I was locked in the 
Baptist church all night ! ” she cried. 

He did not stop to ask any questions 
then, but hugging and kissing her all the 
way, he carried her quickly home and put 
her down in her mother’s lap. The room 
was full of the village women. They 
were all crying ; and, strange to say, they 
did not stop crying when they saw Gussy 
217 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


in her mother’s arms, though they smiled 
through their tears. 

Della danced about the room, and 
laughed and cried at the same time, 
and her father kept patting her head 
and calling her dear pet names. 

As tired and sleepy as she was, Gussy 
could not help feeling a little grand over 
so much unusual attention. 

And in the morning when she woke 
late in her own bed, with Della by her 
side, she felt as though all that had hap- 
pened the day before had been an ugly 
dream, for she was good and happy. 


218 


FIRST MAID 6F HONOR 


FIRST MAID OF HONOR 

“ Hurry, Daisy, walk faster; there's the 
first bell." 

“ Oh, don't run, Ruth," Daisy answered, 
catching her breath. “ I 've got a side- 
ache. We have plenty of time. Let's 
stop and rest; I want to tell you some- 
thing." 

The schoolhouse stood at the end of 
the street in a wide green yard. The bell 
in the square belfry was ringing, and the 
children were playing before the door. 

“ I want to play c Prisoner’s Goal ' a 
little while before the other bell rings. 
Don't let's stop." 

“Well, you can go on, then," Daisy 
said, sitting down on the grass at the side 
of the street ; “ but I think you 're pretty 
mean, when my side aches ! " 

219 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ What is it you want to tell me ? ’’ 
Ruth asked, looking longingly toward the 
schoolhouse. 

“ Oh, nothing ; go on. I don't want 
you to wait for me." 

“ Don’t be cross, Daisy. I never get a 
chance to play. I always have to work 
until school-time every morning, and 
mother let me come early this after- 
noon." 

“ Did you know Lillian Baker had a 
whole pound of candy at school yesterday 
and gave all the boys and girls some, and 
did n’t give you and me a bit ? ’’ asked 
Daisy. 

Ruth sat down beside her in the grass. 

"Well, I’m sure I don’t want any of 
her candy if she does n’t want to give me 
any," she replied. 

“ Do you know why she did n’t give 
you any? ’’ 

“ I suppose she does n’t like me, but 
I can’t help it. I never did anything 


220 


FIRST MAID OF HONOR 

to make her dislike me, that I know 
of.” 

“ Do you think she is the prettiest girl 
in school ? Everybody says she is.” 

“Yes, of course she is. No one ever 
came to our school who was half as pretty. 
I ’d give a million dollars if I had hair 
like hers,” answered Ruth, who was as 
honest as she was plain. 

“ I don’t think she is a bit prettier 
than you are,” said Daisy, with real feel- 
ing. “ And she can’t speak a piece to 
save her neck. I don’t see how she 
thinks she can be May Queen, but she 
does. She thinks she ’s going to buy 
the girls and boys to vote for her with 
her old candy, you see if she does n’t.” 

Ruth’s face flushed, and she stood 
up. 

“ If they want to choose her for Queen 
instead of me, they ’re welcome to. I ’ll 
never try to put myself in ahead of any 
other girl.” 


221 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ How did you know they ’d talked of 
you for Queen ? ” 

“How did I know? How could I 
help but know it, when half a dozen have 
told me I ’d better hurry and learn my 
recitation, for I was sure to be elected ? ” 

“You do recite so beautifully, I’m 
going to make all the boys and girls vote 
for you that I can,” Daisy said, getting 
up and slipping her arm around Ruth. 
“ I think it would be too mean to have 
Lillian get it, just because she ’s a new 
girl, and her father keeps the store.” 

Around the corner, at that moment, 
with a hop, skip, and jump, came Lillian 
Baker. She was, indeed, a very pretty 
little girl, and she knew it quite as well as 
she knew that her candy was sweet. 

“ Don’t speak to her when she catches 
up to us, the stuck-up thing ! ” whispered 
Daisy. “ She ’s got on her white dress 
again. My mother says she thinks it’s 
perfectly ridiculous for her to wear such 


222 


FIRST MAID OF HONOR 


nice clothes to school, when none of the 
rest of us do.” 

“ Sh ! she ’ll hear you, Daisy,” Ruth 
whispered back. 

“ I don’t care if she does, pigging her 
old candy, and saying she ’s going to be 
May Queen. Are you going to speak to 
her when she passes by ? ” 

“Yes; mother says there’s never any 
excuse for not speaking to a person. It ’s 
just being rude yourself.” 

But Miss Lillian gave Ruth no oppor- 
tunity of using her mother’s wise counsel. 
She held her little head very high, and 
flirted by them, in her stiffly starched 
white dress, without even a glance in their 
direction. 

“ I don’t know what I ’ve done to 
make her treat me so,” said Ruth, who 
always liked to be on good terms with 
every one. 

“ What you ’ve done is to be every- 
body’s favorite in school, and she knows 
223 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


it, and she wants to push you out and be 
in it herself.” 

Mr. Bray ton, the teacher, stood in the 
door of the schoolhouse, smiling and 
watching the children at play. 

Lillian Baker ran up to him, and Ruth 
and Daisy saw her put something in his 
hand. 

“ She *s trying to get on the good side 
of teacher too,” said Daisy, crossly. <c She 
gives him something every day, and then 
coaxes him to let her ring the bell, or 
pass the water before any one else gets a 
chance ! ” 

“ You must n’t let her know that you 
care, or it will make her act all the worse,” 
answered Ruth. “It’s too bad, when 
she is so pretty, she should be so dis- 
agreeable.” 

“There, she is ringing the bell. I 
knew that was what she was running 
for.” 

It was great fun for the smaller girls of 


FIRST MAID OF HONOR 


the school to be allowed to ring the bell. 
They could swing with their light weight 
far out of the door. Mr. Bray ton was 
good-naturedly pushing Lillian, and she 
was laughing and screaming and having a 
fine time. But as Ruth and Daisy came 
up the steps, with a crowd of other girls 
and boys, he caught her in his arms and 
set her down on her feet and said, — 

“ All in order, form in line ! ” and 
in an instant every one was quiet, and 
the children were marching into the 
schoolroom. 

A teacher never was more loved, or 
obeyed with greater promptness than Mr. 
Brayton. He loved the children every 
one, and his punishments were always 
sugar-coated. 

Out of school hours he was like a large 
funny boy and often joined in their games, 
but with the last sound of the last bell he 
became the stern, kind teacher whom no 
one cared to displease. 

15 22 5 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


In three days more it would be cc May 
Day ! ” There was to be a grand picnic 
in the woods west of the village, and 
every one was invited. 

A May pole was to be set up with 
bright ribbons, and the children were to 
dance around it to gay music. 

A May Queen and two maids of honor 
were to be chosen by the children of the 
school. 

The May Queen was always called 
upon to give a recitation, and the maids 
of honor to sing in duet. 

It was considered a very important 
occasion, and was looked forward to by 
the children from the time the first 
spring flowers began to peep out of the 
ground. 

Ruth Hardy had been chosen May 
Queen the year before. No one in 
school could begin to speak a piece as 
well as she did. 

She was not a pretty girl, but she had a 
226 


FIRST MAID OF HONOR 


bright, intelligent face ; and in a white 
dotted muslin dress, with her arms and 
neck bare, the children had thought her 
a lovely queen. 

But all this was before Lillian Baker 
had moved to the village. Besides being 
very beautiful, with long golden curls and 
deep blue eyes, Lillian had happy, coax- 
ing little ways that won the heart of every 
one she chose to please, and then she had 
perfect freedom in her father's store, and 
never came to school without a supply of 
goodies. 

This was the day on which the slips of 
paper with the names each one had 
chosen for Queen were to be handed to 
Mr. Brayton. 

He was to read the decision the last 
thing before the close of school. 

I am afraid the lessons were sadly 
neglected that afternoon. In the spell- 
ing class Lillian Baker, who usually 
spelled very well, went from the head 
227 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


of the class to the foot, being so excited 
that she did not spell one word correctly. 

Daisy, who always recited her mental 
arithmetic without a mistake, gave three 
wrong answers, and finally sat down and 
burst into tears. 

Mr. Brayton exerted all his skill in 
keeping order ; but there was more 
whispering that day than his well-gov- 
erned school had ever known before. 

Little notes were tossed recklessly 
across the aisle, and the deaf-and-dumb 
alphabet was freely used. 

The children were in such a state of 
nervous excitement over the impending 
decision that they did not know what 
they were about. 

At last the big clock in the corner said 
that it was ten minutes to four. The 
books were all in the desks, and the chil- 
dren sat with their eyes fixed upon Mr. 
Brayton’s face. 

He stood at his desk, with a small red 
22 8 


FIRST MAID OF HONOR 


pasteboard box open before him, reading 
the names from the slips of paper. 

All at once he shut the box, and came 
down from the platform and stood quite 
near the seats. 

“ Children/' he said very seriously, 
“before I finish reading the names, and 
tell you who is the one chosen for May 
Queen, I want to ask you to make me a 
promise. I want each one of you to 
promise me that no unkind word shall be 
said about the one chosen for Queen. If 
you feel unkindly, keep it to yourself. 
Be loyal to your Queen, whoever she 
may be. Now who will be the first to 
make me the promise ? ” 

The room was very quiet. The chil- 
dren realized that it would not be at all 
easy to keep such a promise, and that if it 
was made it must be kept. 

Ruth's hand was the first to be raised. 

“ That 's my brave girl ! Who will 
follow her example ? " Mr. Brayton asked, 
229 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


smiling encouragingly. “ Up with your 
hands, boys, — there they come ! Every 
hand in the room, — that ’s right ! You 
make me proud and happy when you 
show a spirit like this ! Remember now, 
you are to keep your tongues tied.” 

The children laughed out at this, and 
Mr. Brayton went back to his task of 
reading the names. The clock struck 
four as the last name was read. 

“ Lillian Baker is the choice of twenty- 
two,” Mr. Brayton began. 

The twenty-two children who had 
voted for Lillian interrupted him with a 
wild clapping of hands. 

“ Ruth Hardy is the choice of twenty- 
one,” he continued. <c It is a very close 
count, you see.” 

There was a murmur of disappoint- 
ment, which was quickly hushed. The 
one who had the second number of votes 
for Queen was always given the position 
of the first maid of honor. 


230 


FIRST MAID OF HONOR 


cc Ruth Hardy is then your first maid 
of honor, and the vote of the entire school 
for second maid of honor is Daisy 
Carey ! ” 

As Mr. Brayton finished reading the 
decision, the cheers became so noisy that 
he hastily tapped the bell for dismissal. 

cc Now, children, remember your prom- 
ise,” he said as they passed in file out of 
the room. 

Ruth and Daisy found themselves in 
the group surrounding the Queen when 
they reached the school-yard. 

Ruth stepped up to Lillian and held 
out her hand. “ You will make a beauti- 
ful queen,” she said sweetly. 

<c Oh, thank you,” said Lillian, in a 
very disagreeable tone, and turned away 
and began talking to some one else. She 
did not even notice Ruth’s extended 
hand. 

The first and second maids of honor 
walked silently down the street toward 
231 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


home. They would keep their promise 
to Mr. Brayton, but to do so they had to 
keep their lips tightly closed. 

The girls and boys had all seen Lillian's 
rudeness to Ruth, and the Queen found 
herself in sudden disfavor. 

No one said anything, because of the 
promise ; but the admiring group quickly 
withdrew, and the Queen was left to walk 
home alone and unattended. 

It was May Day, and the children were 
dancing around the May pole. In and out 
through the bright ribbons, the girls flitted 
in their white dresses, the boys following 
with gay scarfs and tissue-paper caps. 

For the time all resentment and unkind 
feelings were put aside. Lillian clasped 
Ruth’s hand as she passed her in the 
dance, and Daisy forgot everything but 
the excitement and fun of the quick-step 
the two merry violinists were playing. 

The mothers and fathers were sitting 
232 


FIRST MAID OF HONOR 


around on the ground and on camp- 
stools, watching them and applauding 
each pretty and graceful turn. 

The dinner was spread on long tables 
under the trees, and when the dance was 
over they took their places. 

The Queen sat at the head of the table, 
with her first and second maids of honor 
on each side of her. 

When all were quiet, the maids of 
honor rose together, and taking the wreath 
of moss-rose buds from the table, placed it 
on the head of their Queen. 

It made a lovely little tableau, and 
every one cheered heartily, and then the 
dinner began in earnest. 

“ Won't you forgive me for being so 
cross to you the other day ? ” the Queen 
whispered softly to her first maid of 
honor, as they were eating their cake 
and ice-cream. 

It was the first time Lillian had spoken 
to Ruth since the day before the election. 

233 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“Yes, of course I will,” whispered 
Ruth. “We want to have a good time 
to-day.” 

“ I was jealous because every one liked 
you so well. They all hate me now. 
Hardly any one has spoken to me to- 
day ! ” The Queen’s voice trembled. 

“ Oh, please don’t cry ! ” whispered the 
first maid of honor, in alarm. “ The girls 
will all forgive you. You do, don’t you, 
Daisy ? ” 

Daisy slipped her arm around Lillian. 

“ Yes, I do, if Ruth does. Don’t cry ; 
you ’ll make your eyes so red, and you 
look so pretty,” she whispered. 

And after dinner the children were 
surprised to see the Queen and her maids 
of honor walking up and down together, 
apparently the best of friends. 

A good example is easily followed, and 
the Queen was soon receiving the atten- 
tion her position demanded. 

There was a second gay dance around 
234 



I y i 

\u\v. 



K « 

'■ '■ ’ ; 





FIRST MAID OF HONOR 


the May pole, and then it was time for 
the recitations and songs. 

Daisy and Ruth sang a duet together, 
and were greeted with a storm of applause, 
and had to go back and sing it all over 
again. 

A recitation from the Queen was now 
called for. 

Mr. Brayton led Lillian forward. She 
looked very beautiful with the crown 
of moss-rose buds in her yellow hair, 
standing against the background of ever- 
greens. 

Her small face grew quite pale with 
fright as she took her place on the plat- 
form. She had never spoken before so 
many people in her life. Her knees 
trembled, and a blur came before her 
eyes, and the heads of her audience looked 
like a sea of waving hair. 

Her mother and Mr. Brayton had both 
drilled her in her recitation until she 
knew it with a parrot-like correctness. 

235 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


She began bravely. Her voice was soft 
and sweet, and every one was charmed. 
But at the end of the second verse the poor 
little Queen suddenly stopped. Her eyes 
closed and she swayed forward, and would 
have fallen if the first maid of honor had 
not sprung to her side and caught her in 
her arms. 

She did not faint, however, but sat very 
white and still, holding Ruth's hand, while 
Mr. Brayton made a few closing remarks 
before dismissing the audience. 

Just as he had finished speaking, one 
of the older boys of the school held up 
his hand and said, — 

“ Mr. Brayton, won’t you please ask 
Ruth Hardy to recite her piece ? We all 
know she learned a good one, and we want 
to hear it.” 

“ Oh, do speak it, Ruth,” whispered 
Lillian. “ I ’ll never be happy again if 
you don’t.” 

“ That request must come from the 
236 


FIRST MAID OF HONOR 


Queen, and not from me/’ Mr. Brayton 
answered pleasantly. “ We always enjoy 
hearing Ruth recite.” 

And then the prettiest thing of the day 
happened. 

The Queen rose and led her first maid 
of honor forward, with a smile and a bow. 

Ruth’s recitation was the well-known 
ballad of “John Gilpin’s Ride,” and she 
did not falter or make one mistake in all 
of the sixty-three verses. 

“ Away went Gilpin, and away 
Went post-boy at his heels ! 

The post-boy’s horse right glad to miss 
The lumb’ring of the wheels. 

“ Six gentlemen upon the road. 

Thus seeing Gilpin fly. 

With post-boy scamp’ ring in the rear. 

They raised the hue and cry : — 

« ‘ Stop thief! stop thief ! a highwayman ! ’ 

Not one of them was mute. 

And all and each that pass’d that way 
Did join in the pursuit.” 

237 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


No one applauded more vigorously 
than the Queen. Lillian's sweet conces- 
sion to her ability completely won Ruth’s 
heart, and the Queen and her first maid 
of honor were ever after the best of 
friends. 


238 


A TRUANT FRIEND 


A TRUANT FRIEND 

“ Wait for me, Margery ; I want to tell 
you something/’ 

“ Mother told me to hurry home from 
school. I can’t wait, Helen.” Margery 
turned and ran backwards. cc What do 
you want to tell me ? ” 

“ It’s a secret. You ’ll be sorry if you 
don’t wait. I won’t tell you if you 
don’t.” 

Margery stopped on the edge of the 
sidewalk, balancing herself first on one foot 
and then on the other. “ Well, hurry ; 
I ’m waiting.” 

Helen was several years older than 
Margery. It made the little girl feel 
very important to have for her most 
intimate friend one of the largest girls in 
school. This friendship had made her 
many enemies among the children of her 
239 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


own age ; but Margery believed it was 
only because they were jealous of her 
having a girl in one of the higher classes 
for her friend. 

They were going down a shady street 
in South Boston. Margery’s home was 
the first door in the next block, and 
Helen’s was a few doors beyond. 

Until she had known Helen, Margery 
had accepted the severe discipline of her 
home as nothing unusual. All little girls 
were reproved and punished when they 
did anything that displeased their par- 
ents, she had supposed. Her father and 
mother were not really unkind to her, 
but they had never made her feel her 
love for them a motive for doing as 
they asked her to. 

Margery’s father was wealthy, and in 
one respect she was wonderfully fortu- 
nate ; at least, all the other little girls told 
her that she was. Her father believed 
it was important for a child to learn 
240 


A TRUANT FRIEND 


the value of money by experience, and 
Margery was given a very liberal allow- 
ance. All that was asked of her was to 
keep her accounts correctly, and show 
him her account-book once every month. 

Perhaps this was an unwise kindness, 
for Margery usually spent the greater 
part of it in candy and pickles and cakes. 
She was generous, and it was very pleasant 
to be her best friend, as Helen had dis- 
covered. Helen was generous too ; and 
every month, before Margery’s allow- 
ance was given her, this best friend had 
proposed some delightful way of spend- 
ing it. 

“ Well, you know the Rollo Books,” 
Helen said, as they walked along. “ Have 
you read them ? ” 

“ No, but I ’ve heard of them ; I know 
what they ’re about.” 

“ When you ’re as old as I am, of 
course you ’ll read them all. I have, a 
dozen times. There ’s a place in one 
16 241 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


that’s made me think of the loveliest 
plan ! ” 

“ What is it ? We must walk fast, 
Helen; mother — ” 

“ It ’s about a gypsy party,” Helen 
interrupted her. t£ If you ’re afraid of 
your mother, you better run along.” 

“ I don’t know what you mean by a 
gypsy party?” 

“ Well, I ’m going to tell you, if you ’ll 
just wait. They have some tents — two 
or three in the woods — and a camp-fire, 
like gypsies. All who are invited come 
in gypsy costumes, and one has to dress 
up like an old hag and tell fortunes. 
That is n’t just the way in the Rollo 
Book. Of course every one would take 
their own lunch, but some one would 
have to hire a man to put up the tents.” 

“ I have a tent up in the attic, besides 
the one on our lawn. I could take both 
of them. Would n’t it be fun ? Do you 
suppose we could get it up ? Of course 
242 


A TRUANT FRIEND 


I could give the money to have the tents 
put up, because I have more than the 
other girls.” 

“Yes, you’d have to,” Helen answered 
decidedly. <£ If the other girls get their 
costumes and pay their car fare, they’ll do 
pretty well.” 

“ I suppose it would take all this month’s 
allowance ; but I don’t care ; we ’d have a 
perfectly splendid time, would n’t we ? ” 
Margery said enthusiastically. 

“ I thought it would be nice to have it 
out on Chelsea Beach, for we could go on 
the open horse-cars, and then we could go 
in bathing when we got tired of all the 
rest, if we wanted to.” 

“ All right ; let ’s do it ! I don’t see 
why we can’t just as easy as not.” 
Margery put her arm around Helen. 
“ You do think of the loveliest things. I 
don’t see how you do it.” 

“This is the best yet, isn’t it?” 

They had come to Margery’s door, and 

243 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


the little girl ran up the steps. Helen 
called her back. “ Oh, come here just a 
minute. I would n’t tell my mother a 
thing about it, if I were you,” she whis- 
pered. <c I ’m not going to. Perhaps 
they ’d think we could n’t carry it out. 
We’ll get it all up, then tell them, and 
ask them to come down in the afternoon 
and see us, and that will make it all 
right.” 

Margery ran back up the stairs, laugh- 
ing at Helen’s cleverness, and honestly 
believing that it would make it all right. 

The next day, when they were going 
home from school, they decided the 
number of children they would ask. 

“ I think,” Helen said, “ we ’ll have to 
tell my mother, Margery, so she can 
make the dresses ? ” 

“ Why, if you are going to tell your 
mother, I must tell mine too, Helen. 
She ’ll let me go, I know. She almost 
always lets me go to places.” 

244 




























































A TRUANT FRIEND 


“Well, perhaps she would, but she ob- 
jects and scolds about things so much I 
won't risk it. I wouldn’t tell mine if 
some one did n’t have to make our 
dresses. When it ’s all planned, she can’t 
do anything, and, as you say, she won’t 
care, anyway.” 

Margery’s heart misgave her; but 
Helen had a greater hold on her con- 
fidence than her mother had ever 
gained. 

It was the night before the day set for 
the picnic, and Margery must tell her 
mother and father about it before she 
went to bed. She had no great fear of 
their objecting to the plan. The money 
she had spent had been from her allow- 
ance, and she had often been permitted to 
go to the beach when there were older 
girls in the party. Her mother had 
always trusted her with Helen. 

They were in the library ; and long 
after, when she was a woman, Margery 

245 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


could see the room just as it looked that 
night, — her father sitting on one side of 
the table, reading his newspaper, her 
mother on the opposite side, working the 
button-holes in a little blue dress for her- 
self. What a terror she had of her own 
voice, as she sat there in a chair between 
them, pretending to study, while she 
struggled to begin to speak ! 

Finally, when the clock struck eight, 
her mother said, “ Margery, put down 
your book and come here.” 

She supposed, of course, it was some- 
thing about the new dress her mother was 
making, and went at once and stood by 
her side. 

“Your father and I know what you 
have been doing, Margery. We know 
how deceitful and ” — Mrs. Burton's face 
flushed — “ and sneaking you have been. 
How did you dare send out invitations 
without consulting me ? ” 

“ I was just going to tell you. I was 
246 


A TRUANT FRIEND 


going to tell you to-night/’ Margery said, 
beginning to cry. 

“ I only found out about it this after- 
noon. To-night is a great time to tell 
about it, when it is to-morrow you intend 
to have the picnic party. Why, when I 
was ten years old I would no more have 
thought I could do such a thing than that 
I could cut off one of my hands ! ” 

“ How did you know your mother 
would let you have this party, Margery ? ” 
her father asked. 

“ I thought she would. I am only 
going to spend my money for the ice-cream 
and tents. The girls are going to take 
their own lunch. You never do care how 
I spend my allowance, and mamma has 
let me go to the beach with the girls ever 
so many times when Helen was going,” 
she sobbed out. It never occurred to her 
faithful little heart to lay any of the blame 
on Helen. 

“ But this is a different affair altogether, 
247 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


going off with twenty or thirty children 
to be gone all day. I understand you 
have planned to have a camp-fire too. 
Why, it's the wildest thing I ever heard 
of! I wonder any parent has consented 
to let a child go.” 

“ But they are all going. Some of the 
mothers are going too, so we'll be all 
right. I thought maybe mamma would 
come down in the afternoon.” 

Margery sank down on the floor at her 
mother’s feet, and buried her face in her 
apron. 

Mr. Burton cleared his throat, and 
picked up his paper. He had said all 
that he had to say on the subject. 

“ Well, I ’ll tell you just what is going 
to happen, Margery,” her mother said, 
looking down at her, “and I hope it will 
be a lesson you will never forget.” She 
paused for a moment. “We are going 
upstairs now and pack your things, and 
in the morning at eight o’clock your 
248 


A TRUANT FRIEND 


father is going to take you to your uncle 
Harvey's in Brookline, and you are going 
to stay two weeks." 

“ Mamma ! ” Margery screamed, “ I 
can't go. I 've got to stay at home and 
go to the picnic! They are going to 
meet up here between our house and 
Helen's, and all go together. They 'll 
have their lunches, and I 've promised 
my tents and hammocks. I 've got to 
stay. I — I can't stay out of school 
either, and get down in my class." 

“ I shall go to the door and tell the 
children you have gone away and are not 
going. As for your place in your class, 
you should have thought of that before." 

“ But it will spoil everything ! I hired 
a man to come for our tents. None of 
the girls have an allowance but me ! " 

“ There, now, that will do," her father 
said, looking over his paper. 

Margery sprang up and ran screaming 
out of the room and up the stairs. Her 
2 49 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


father came up and spoke to her sternly, 
and she was silent, but for long hours she 
lay awake, crying and thinking of the 
shame and disgrace that had befallen her. 

When the two weeks of her exile in 
Brookline were over she came home, ner- 
vously dreading to go back into school. 
She had heard nothing of what had hap- 
pened on that morning when she went 
away. Before she started to school her 
mother said to her, — 

“ Don't speak of the picnic or your 
going away, Margery. Just keep still, 
and let it all be forgotten as soon as 
possible." 

“ Did they all come ? ” Margery asked 
tearfully. 

“ I don’t know. There was a crowd 
of them." 

“ Did they go anyway, without me ? " 

“ I did n’t ask. Go on to school ; 
you ’ll be late." 


250 


A TRUANT FRIEND 


The poor child found out all that she 
wanted to know before night. Helen 
came out of her door as she was going 
down the steps. 

“ Oh, Helen, I ’m home ! I ’m going 
to school ! ” Margery called to her. 

Helen did not answer. She crossed 
over on to the other side of the street, 
and did not look back. Margery was too 
greatly surprised to think what it could 
mean. She ran across the street and 
walked by her side. 

“Are you angry with me, Helen? I 
could n’t help going away. Mother sent 
me. Is that what’s the matter? Oh, 
Helen, did everybody else go ? ” 

Helen shook off Margery’s arm that 
she had put around her waist. 

“ I wish you ’d go away. I don’t in- 
tend ever to have anything to do with 

t >> 

you ! 

Margery turned and went slowly back 
across the street. It seemed as though 

251 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


the world had suddenly stopped moving 
and her heart would break. She longed 
to go home, but she knew that her mother 
would not let her stay at home, and it 
would be of no use. 

It was fortunate that the very hardest 
part of that hard day came first. Noth- 
ing could ever be harder for her than 
having Helen turn against her like 
this. 

She went on to school alone. No one 
spoke to her as she crossed the school- 
grounds where all the children were play- 
ing. 

She went into the quiet school-room 
and took her seat and put her head down 
on her desk. There was no one in the 
room but the teacher. 

“ Why, I ’m glad you ’re back again, 
Margery. It is too bad you had to stay 
out so near the end of the year.” 

Margery lifted her pale little face and 
looked at her. “ Do you suppose I shall 
252 


A TRUANT FRIEND 


miss my examinations and not be pro- 
moted, Miss Lyon ? ” 

“ I hope not. You have nearly three 
weeks to make up the work. I guess 
you can do it if you study hard.” Miss 
Lyon came down between the seats and 
took Margery’s face between her hands 
and kissed her on each of her cheeks. 
“ Don’t be discouraged, dear. There ’s 
always a sunny day coming.” 

The bell out in the cupola rang, and 
the children came in and took their 
places. 

All day these kind words and kisses 
were a source of secret joy to Margery’s 
wounded little heart. 

She walked home from school alone at 
noon and again at night. No one offered 
to play with her, or to talk to her, and 
she was very lonely and miserable. The 
next morning she made a second and last 
attempt to renew her old friendship with 
Helen. 


2 53 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


“ The idea of getting up a picnic party, 
and inviting everybody, and saying you ’d 
have the tents put up, and pay for the ice- 
cream, and then going off and not leaving 
any word or anything ! ” Helen said. 

“ Oh, Helen, I couldn’t help it! Did 
every one go ? ” 

<c Yes, and I had to pay for the ice- 
cream, and every one was cross because 
we did n’t have any tents, and it rained 
and soaked us all to the skin ; and it ’s all 
your fault, and I ’m not going to have 
anything more to do with babies.” 

The next day Margery did not go to 
school ; she lay on the lounge in the 
library the greater part of the day and 
slept, and was so listless and unlike her- 
self that her mother became quite alarmed 
about her. 

In the evening Miss Lyon came over 
to see her. Her teacher had never been 
to see her before, and Margery wondered 
about it and was very happy. 

254 


A TRUANT FRIEND 


She went into another room with her 
mother, and Margery heard them talking 
together in low tones for a long time. 
When they came back her mother said to 
her, — 

“ I understand some things that I wish 
I had known before, Margery,” and 
stooped and kissed her. “ Miss Lyon 
has been asking me to let you go home 
with her to Vermont when school is out, 
and I have said you may.” 

Margery jumped up and threw her 
arms around Miss Lyon's neck. “ Oh, 
I ’m so glad. I ’ll love to go.” 

“ I thought you would. I have a little 
niece just your own age. You will have 
nice times together, and you will get back 
your rosy cheeks again. So I don’t want 
you to worry about being promoted any 
more. If you don’t get your promotion 
now, you can study a little with me this 
summer, and you will be all ready to go 
into the next class in the fall.” 


255 


TEN LITTLE COMEDIES 


Margery never knew what was said out 
in the other room that night. She never 
guessed that this wise teacher knew all 
about her trouble, and how largely Helen 
had been the cause of it. There was a 
new tenderness in Margery’s mother after 
that night. She sought and gained her 
little daughter’s confidence as she never 
had before. 

And when, at the end of a happy sum- 
mer in Vermont, she came back to school, 
the trouble had grown quite dreamlike. 
Helen had fortunately moved to another 
part of the city, and the other children 
seemed to have forgotten all about it. 


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